


Selfless

by Lorren



Series: Selfless Tetrology [1]
Category: Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-02-19 12:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2387534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lorren/pseuds/Lorren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if Tris Prior had chosen to remain in Abnegation, while everything else in the universe had remained the same?  This story details how the lives of Tris, Four, and the other people living in Chicago would be changed if she would have chosen differently.  Destiny does intervene though, and Four and Tris do manage to get together ;-).</p><p>This book tries to remain true to all of Veronica Roth's Divergent books, including Four Short Stories and Free Four.  Where Beatrice's choice affects the universe, the world changes; however, the world that she does not affect goes on exactly as it otherwise would have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Selfless Choice

**Beatrice**

Today is Choosing Day.

Today is the day that I pick the faction that will decide what I am going to do for the rest of my life. My stomach is tied in knots, because I do not know what I should do.

Our city is divided up into five different factions. You’re supposed to choose your faction based on your personality. Each faction performs different roles in order to run the city smoothly. Amity runs the farms. They are kind-hearted, caring people. Candor provides us with judges and lawyers. They’re supposed to always tell the truth; often, they can be too truthful. Erudite develops all of our technology and provides us with doctors. They’re all smart. Dauntless provides us with our security forces. They have to be brave; my father says that they’re crazy. Maybe they are. They jump on and off moving trains, and sometimes they get hurt trying to prove their bravery. My faction, Abnegation, runs the government and provides volunteer services for the less fortunate. We’re supposed to be selfless.

Outside of these five factions, there are the factionless. These are the people that don’t belong in any group. Some of them were born factionless. Others at one point or another had a faction, but either were kicked out or left. I couldn’t imagine living life among the factionless. They don’t have a support system like we do within the factions, and although they are offered jobs, working in factories, cleaning, or running the trains, they never seem to have enough to eat, or enough warm clothing to wear in the winter.

 

The aptitude test that I took yesterday should have made the choice of what faction I should pick easy. It should have told me which faction I was most suited for. Unfortunately, my aptitude tests came back inconclusive.

I was pretty nervous going into the testing room. Everyone tells you not to be, but I couldn’t help it. I had no clue where I belonged. Some people, like my brother Caleb and our neighbor Susan, just seem born for Abnegation. I’m not. Caleb always has to remind me to help people out or give up my seat on the bus. I don’t feel like I belong here, but where else would I go? I have no clue where I belong, and here I am, taking a test that’s supposed to tell me where I belong for the rest of my life. How could I not be nervous?

As I entered the room, I noticed that there were mirrors covering the walls of the room. I couldn’t help but looking at myself. We aren’t allowed to look in the mirror in Abnegation, except for every third month when we get a haircut. My mother cut my hair earlier that day, so it wasn’t like I had already forgotten what I looked like, but mirrors are an oddity to me. I looked at my blonde hair tucked back into a bun, and my gray clothes covering up the rest of me like a tent.

In the center of the room, I noticed a reclining chair, almost like a dentist’s chair. It looked pretty intimidating. A Dauntless woman was in the room with me. She introduced herself as Tori and told me to have a seat. Trying to make me comfortable, she told me that it wouldn’t hurt. I wasn’t too sure about that, but I took a seat anyway.

Most of the testers are from Abnegation, but we can’t be tested by someone from our own faction, which means that someone else has to volunteer as well. I noticed that Tori had a hawk tattoo on her back. I asked her what it was for.

Tori remarked that she didn’t often meet curious Abnegation. I shouldn’t have asked. Curiosity is selfish. That’s what my parents have always taught me. I don’t really need to know why she has her hawk tattoo. She answered anyway, telling me that hawks were a symbol of the sun in some parts of the ancient world. Her tattoo was originally a reminder to herself to not be afraid of the dark, but today it is a reminder of a fear that she has overcome.

She gave me a clear liquid to drink, and as I closed my eyes, I found myself somewhere else.

I found myself in the school cafeteria. On the table in front of me were two baskets. One had cheese in it, the other had a knife. Behind me, a woman told me to choose. Why was I supposed to make a choice? The woman wouldn’t tell me why, but instead insisted that I make a choice. I crossed my arms and shook my head. I needed more information before making the choice.

I soon figured out what the two items were for, when a large, snarling dog appeared in the room. I could have pacified the dog with the cheese, or I could have killed the dog with the knife, but I had neither of those things to protect myself with. I tried to remember everything that I knew about dogs. I remembered from school that looking a dog in the eye was a sign of aggression. I lie down in front of the dog and look down on the floor. It got him to make peace with me.

A little girl in a white dress appeared in the simulation next. She was pretty excited to see the dog. “Puppy!” she exclaimed. Unfortunately, the dog was not as excited to see her. It sprang as if to attack her. Seeing what was happening, I jumped on the dog trying to protect the girl. The dog and the girl disappeared.

In the last part of the test, I was on a bus, and a scarred man was reading a newspaper. “Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended!” the headline on the newspaper read. He asked me if I knew who he was. Something in my mind told me that it would be a bad idea to admit that I did know him. So I lied, even though deep down I knew that if I told the truth, I could save him.

Then the test ended. Tori said that I had an equal aptitude for Erudite, Dauntless, and Abnegation. She said that I was something called Divergent. Evidently, being Divergent is a dangerous thing, and I shouldn’t tell anybody about it. Unfortunately, being Divergent doesn’t help me figure out what faction I should join.

 

Abnegation would be the easy choice. If I choose Abnegation, I will get to stay with my family. If I choose another faction, I will be thought of as a traitor and will have to leave. I might never see my family again.

Unfortunately, I’m not really selfless enough to be a part of Abnegation. Helping others, like giving up my seat on a bus, giving away my possessions, or carrying other people’s bags for them, just doesn’t come automatically to me. I couldn’t even tell the truth to save that guy on the bus during the aptitude test. I shouldn’t really stay here. I can never be good enough to truly feel like I belong.

The Choosing Ceremony is located at the Hub, which is the tallest building in the city. It used to be called the Sears Tower, long before anybody that I ever met was alive. We walk up twenty flights of stairs to get to the Choosing Ceremony; fortunately, we don’t have to walk all of the way to the top. By walking, Abnegation allows the people in other factions to use the elevator. By the time we get to the twentieth floor, my legs are sore, and I struggle to breathe.

All of the sixteen-year-olds who are choosing their factions today arrange themselves in alphabetical order. My brother, Caleb, stands next to me; on the other side stands Danielle Pohler, a girl from Amity. Behind us sit our family members, grouped according to faction.

The factions take turns hosting the Choosing Ceremony; this year, that responsibility falls to my faction, Abnegation. Marcus, Abnegation’s leader, will give the opening address. Erudite recently reported that the reason his son, Tobias, transferred to Dauntless two years ago was because he was abusive to his son. My parents were talking about it at the dinner table last night.

I didn’t really know Tobias; I might have seen him once, at his mother’s funeral. Since he was a couple of years older than me, we never had classes together. I think I remember him being sick a lot. Mother would sometimes make chicken noodle soup for Tobias when she heard that he had been sick and had been missing school. She would have me carry it to their house which was right next to ours; our backyard was right next to his backyard. Marcus would always answer the door; I guess Tobias was always too sick to answer. Tobias never went to community events or came to dinner at our house when Marcus came over either; maybe he was just too sick most of the time. I don’t know how a kid like that could survive in Dauntless. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he’s factionless today.

Marcus works with my dad because they both work on the city council together. The Erudite have been publishing lies about our faction lately; the abuse story was probably another one of them.

Five large metal bowls sit before us. When they call my name, I will be given a knife, and will make a cut in my hand. I will take the blood and drip it into one of the bowls, representing the different elements of the factions. Grey stones represent my faction, Abnegation. Lit coals represent Dauntless. These are the two factions that I am considering. Water represents Erudite, earth represents Amity, and glass stands for Candor. My aptitude test shows that I have no aptitude for Amity or Candor. I’m not kind or honest enough for either of those. While I do have the aptitude for Erudite, I couldn’t imagine myself in front of books all day. Even though I’ve narrowed my decision to two factions, the choice is not an easy one.

I will probably choose Dauntless. Caleb is selfless; I’m sure that he will choose Abnegation. I hate the thought of leaving my family, but I have to think of myself. That’s what Caleb advised me to do last night. If I choose Dauntless, they will still have Caleb; I guess that they will take comfort in that they still have their son left. Although I won’t see my parents much more after that, the appeal of the freedom that Dauntless brings appeals to me.

My parents approach me before they sit down. My father kisses me on the forehead, telling me that he will see me soon. _Maybe not_ , I think. He’ll see Caleb soon, but if I choose Dauntless, then probably not.

My mother hugs me, looks me in the eyes, and tells me “I love you. No matter what.” Will she love me even if I leave my faction?

Perhaps she already knows that I’m thinking about leaving I think to myself.

Caleb grabs my hand and squeezes. I wonder if he’s as nervous as I am. He can’t be nervous though; I don’t know anybody as selfless as he is. I’m sure that it will be easy for him to pick Abnegation.

Marcus approaches the podium, and gives a speech about how the factions were picked in order to bring peace to the world. He talks about how we are all able to choose our way in the world, although he doesn’t mention that our choice has to fall into one of five pre-determined boxes.

He describes all of the factions. Amity blamed aggression for all of the troubles of the world, Erudite blamed ignorance. Candor blamed duplicity. Those that blamed selfishness created Abnegation; I do blame selfishness, but I am not selfless. Those who blamed cowardice formed the Dauntless faction. Could I be brave enough for Dauntless?

Marcus finishes his speech, and calls the names out in reverse alphabetical order.

One by one, the names are called. Most remain in their current faction. James Tucker is the first to change factions, from Dauntless to Candor. A low rumble erupts from the Dauntless section. He will be considered a faction traitor from now on. Eventually, they will forget about him. The motto _Faction Before Blood_ is held in high regard in our city.

After a while, my brother’s name is called. Caleb squeezes my hand before he walks to the center of the room. He looks over his shoulder at me as he walks away. Marcus hands him a knife, and Caleb cuts into his palm. He stands in front of the bowls for a second, and then puts his hand over the Erudite bowl, dripping his blood into the water below.

Erudite? His decision surprises me. I thought that he was the selfless one. Then again, I do remember that he always had a lot of books in his room. Was his selflessness just Erudite behavior in disguise? It must have been. Either that, or he’s good at acting.

Although Abnegation is normally quiet, Caleb’s decision is met with low whispers and glares in the direction of Erudite. With all of the recent lies that Erudite has been publishing about us, how could he have chosen to go there?

Being the son of one of the city’s leaders, the choice to transfer seems to surprise many in the crowd. Marcus has to call the room to order. “Quiet, please!” he shouts.

After the room calms down, Marcus calls my name. It is now my turn to choose.

I nervously walk to the center of the room. Can I still choose Dauntless now? My parents would be devastated to lose both of their children. It would take bravery, and a bit of selfishness, to choose Dauntless; but how could I choose Abnegation, if even Caleb wasn’t selfless enough for Abnegation?

I want to choose Dauntless. _No, I can’t choose that_ , I think to myself. I will choose to wear Abnegation grey, marry my neighbor Robert, and volunteer on the weekends. It will be a life of peace and safety. One day, perhaps, I will learn to be selfless.

I have to stay for my parents.

Marcus hands me the knife. As I look in his eyes, I notice that they are a strange dark blue color. I take the knife that he offers to me, and approach the bowls. Can I choose Dauntless? I could, but I shouldn’t. I need to be the child that stays. I need to do this for my parents. I cut unto my palm, and hesitate, standing with my hand between the bowls for a second. I want to be free, Dauntless. I can’t. I have to do this for my parents. I push my arm out over the grey stones, and my blood drips into the Abnegation bowl.

Was choosing Abnegation an act of cowardice? Or was it an act of bravery, living a life that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to live for my parents’ sakes? Although I am not selfless, this choice may be the most selfless choice that I have ever made. I will have to live with it. Once you make your choice, it is irrevocable.

 

I see my father smile at me as I return to my faction, although I don’t sit back next to him. I sit down in the front row in the Abnegation section. I am met with nods and small smiles. While other factions are greeted with wide smiles, cheers, and pats on the back, Abnegation is much more reserved. I will get used to it, over time. I think.

For the next month, I will be an Abnegation initiate. I won’t be staying with my family again until after initiation is over, although I will be seeing them on visiting day.

I watch the rest of the initiates make their choices. Abnegation isn’t really the most popular choice, although I’m not surprised. Being kind and helping others can feel good, but it’s not always easy. Besides, after all of the things that Erudite has been saying about us, I don’t blame people for wanting to stay away.

As the last initiates are called, I hear Susan Black’s name. She chooses Abnegation and takes a seat next to me. Her brother, Robert, is called next. He chooses Amity, leaving me a little puzzled. The Blacks have always seemed like they belonged in Abnegation. Caleb and Susan always liked to spend time together, and Robert would always come along. We were neighbors. Robert would often smile at me. I guess his smiles were just his Amity showing, not that he had an interest in me or anything.

When I woke up this morning, I thought that staying in Abnegation meant that I had my whole life mapped out for me. I’d marry Robert, live next to Susan and Caleb, and we’d all live a quiet, boring life ever after, raising our kids together. I guess that my life isn’t set in stone, even though I did choose Abnegation.

**Tobias**

Another year, another set of initiates. This is going to be my last though; after initiation, I am going to join the ranks of the factionless. In the last year, I’ve discovered more than I wanted to know about how cruel my faction, Dauntless, could really be. The factionless might not have an easy life, but they’re not cruel. I also discovered that my mother, who I thought was dead, was actually alive. She has become one of the leaders of the factionless.

It was a shock to see that my mom was still alive. It was almost as shocking to me to find out that the factionless actually had a support network. They did a lot of the things that I’m used to, like sharing with each other or forming friendships. They also seem to have more freedom than most of us do in the factions.

My father, Marcus, is the leader of the Abnegation faction. Perhaps leadership runs in my family. Max, one of the leaders of Dauntless, wants me to take a position of leadership in Dauntless, but I don’t want it. He only wants a puppet. I don’t want to be a part of it.

I would consider joining the factionless now, rather than waiting, but my best friend, Zeke, has a brother who will probably be joining this initiate class. I suspect that Uriah is Divergent, or belongs to more than one faction. He seems to have the trait of friendliness common to those in Amity. I am Divergent as well. My former instructor, Amar, also was. The leadership in Dauntless doesn’t like divergence; those that have that trait often end up dead. Amar did. So far, I’ve hid my divergence and have stayed safe. I have to help Uriah get through initiation safely, teaching him how to hide his divergence as well.

I wait at the entrance that all of the initiates are going to jump through. The jump is a test of bravery. In fact, the first couple of hours after joining Dauntless is a test of bravery. After choosing Dauntless, the first thing that they do is jump onto a moving train. That isn’t the end though. Jumping off the train, onto a rooftop that is several stories above the ground, is another test. The final test is jumping off of that rooftop. The initiates can see that they have to jump a great distance, through a hole in the ceiling, but they are not told what is at the bottom of the hole. A net will catch them, but they don’t know that.

I can hear them up above; one will jump soon.

Several of the Dauntless make their best guesses of who will be jumping first. My guess is that it will be Uriah. His brother was the first jumper in my class. The first jumper is almost always Dauntless. Not only are they taught from a young age to be brave, but most of them already know about the net at the bottom.

I look up, and a black blur falls into the net. I reach out my hands to pull him off of the net.

“Make the announcement, Four,” Lauren, a fellow initiate instructor, says to me. Everybody calls me Four. Eric is the only person here that knows my true name, Tobias. I left that name behind when I left Abnegation for Dauntless. I don’t want to have anything to do with my abusive father, Marcus. Eric won’t reveal my true name; I threatened him not to. He knows that I can beat him in a fight if I have to. I have before, and knocked out one of his teeth.

“First jumper—Uriah!” I shout. The other Dauntless members around me whoop and holler. Being first jumper is almost like a badge of honor, and Uriah has claimed his place in first-jumper fame, next to his brother. “I knew you’d be first,” I tell him, patting him on the back.

The other jumpers fall through the net, and I help them to the ground. After all the initiates jump, Lauren and I lead them through the Dauntless halls. We reach a fork in the hallway, and stop.

“This is where we divide,” Lauren says. “The Dauntless-born initiates are with me. I assume _you_ don’t need a tour of the place.” I watch her lead them down a hallway, out of sight.

There are eight initiates left. None of the transfers are from Abnegation or Amity. Amity transfers to Dauntless are fairly rare; Abnegation transfers are even rarer. In fact, I am the only person to transfer to Dauntless from Abnegation for as long as anybody can remember. I address the group. “Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor. My name is Four.”

“Four, like the number?” a Candor girl asks, with a scoffing attitude. Candor can be so inquisitive and annoying. I’m not really big into questions. Besides, I need to make sure that this class of initiates respects me. I need to nip her inquisitiveness in the bud.

“Yes,” I reply, looking at her in the eyes. Some people say that I can be intimidating that way. “Is there a problem?”

“No.”

“Good. We’re about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It—”

“The Pit? Clever name.”   It was the Candor girl again. She’s rolling her eyes.

I walk up to her, lean into her face, and stare. I don’t need any Candor making smart remarks, and I certainly don’t want one of the initiates undermining my authority as their instructor. “What’s your name?” I ask quietly. I’ve learned that quietness can often be more intimidating than yelling.

“Christina,” she ekes out.

“Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction.” I hiss. “The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?”

She nods, her eyes wide. I think she got the hint.

I move down the tunnel, then through a set of double doors. I don’t look back, although I know that the rest of the initiates are following me. We enter the Pit, which is a huge underground cavern, with places to get food, clothing, and supplies built into the sides of the wall. Home, at least for the next few weeks.

“If you follow me,” I tell them, “I’ll show you the chasm.” I bring them to a dark area of the Pit, where there is a railing. Past the railing, a waterfall crashes against the rocks. “The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!” I shout. “A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You’ve been warned.”

I bring them into the dining hall. It is loud, filled with the noise of people and clattering silverware. The Dauntless inside already stand; they applaud, shout, and stamp their feet for the new initiates. At least Dauntless can support their own at times. That’s one of the things that I like about this faction.

I take a seat at an empty table. The initiates join me. Next to me is a blonde-haired boy, and next to him is Christina. We’re having hamburgers tonight.

As we eat, the room suddenly becomes quiet. I look over my shoulder. Eric has entered the room.

“Who’s that?” hisses Christina.

“His name is Eric,” I say. “He’s a Dauntless leader.”

“Seriously? But he’s so young.”

I look at her sternly. “Age doesn’t matter here.”

Eric walks over to our table and sits down next to me.

“Well, aren’t you going to introduce me?” he asks, nodding to the initiates sitting next to me.

“This is Christina, and—”

“Will,” the blonde-haired boy next to me says.

Eric taps his fingers against the table. “What have you been doing lately, Four?” he asks me.

I shrug my shoulders. “Nothing, really.”

“Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don’t show up,” he tells me. “He requested that I find out what’s going on with you.”

I look at Eric for a few seconds. “Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold.”

“Well, let’s hope he gets the point then,” Eric says, clapping me on the shoulder. When he leaves, I breathe out. Eric makes me nervous.

My friend Zeke calls me over from another table, and I go to join my friends. I have to work with Eric this year while training the initiates. That won’t be fun, but it’s part of the reason why I don’t go and join the factionless now. I can’t bear the thought of letting that maniac train them all by himself, especially with Uriah among them. Someone might get hurt.

 

“What do you think of the new initiates?” Zeke asks me, as I sit down. He’s sitting down next to his girlfriend, Shauna, and a couple of other people.

I shrug. “I bet Uriah’s going to be number one.”

Zeke smiles. “Anybody else look promising?”

“It’s too early to tell. The big guy looks strong, but you never know.”

Zeke shakes his head. “You never know,” he agrees. “You were the skinniest initiate there when you transferred. All covered in grey. I bet there were several people betting that you would be the first one to go factionless.” Zeke and I were in the same initiate class, although since he was born Dauntless, like Shauna, we didn’t train together for the first couple of weeks.

“The Candor transfer could easily get on my nerves though. She had comments to say about everything when I brought them in here. My name, the name of the Pit…”

“I’m sure that she’ll lose some of that Candor edge once she’s been here a while,” Shauna comments. “We all lose some of our original factions traits.”

“I don’t know about that,” Zeke says, pushing me in the arm. “Four might be strong, but he’s still a Stiff. I try to set him up with a nice girl, and he usually turns me down.”

I shake my head. “Let’s not get started with that again,” I say. “Your blind dates were disasters.”

“When you fall off a balance beam, you have to get right back on,” Zeke comments.

“I’ll meet the right girl someday,” I say.

“Whatever,” Zeke says, rolling his eyes. “Maybe you and that Candor girl will hit it off.”

I frown. I don’t think that that’s going to happen.


	2. Al Quits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Dauntless, Four teaches the initiates to fight. During the knife throwing session, Tris is not there to stand up for Al. Meanwhile, over in Abnegation, Beatrice is living the unfulfilling life of a not completely selfless individual living a life where she is expected to be selfless.
> 
> Some of the dialogue will be familiar. The characters all have the same nature, and would have said similar things, even without the presence of Tris.

**Beatrice**

I watched as the crowds in the other factions filed out of the Hub. Dauntless ran out of the room first, whooping and hollering. I felt a twinge of jealousy over their freedom, but I knew that that sort of freedom would have come at the cost of my family’s happiness. The other factions left afterwards. After they left, we looked through the seats to make sure that everything was cleaned up, then we stacked chairs. Someone new to Abnegation might not know that we usually stay behind to clean up after the others, but since nobody had transferred into the faction this year, we didn’t have to explain this to anyone.

After we had looked over the room and ensured that everything was clean, I heard someone say “Initiates!” I looked over to see a young red-haired lady dressed in gray.

We gathered around the lady, standing in a line around her so that everybody could see. There were only five of us. I had seen all of them around in school before. There was Susan, of course, and another girl named Mary. There was also Paul and Michael.

“My name is Lydia,” the red-haired lady said. “I’m your initiation guide. I will show you to the house. Since we have no transfers this year, I won’t have to show anybody around. We’ll be taking the stairs, to allow your family members to take the elevators.”

If the other factions were still around, nobody from Abnegation would be taking the elevators, but since all the other factions left earlier, we had nobody to give the elevators to. As initiates, we were to spend the next month learning how to be more selfless, so we let all of the others use the elevators.

We followed Lydia to a house a few streets down from my parent’s house. All of the Abnegation houses look the same, so we all knew the general layout of the house. Lydia took us up to the second floor.

“This will be the boy’s room,” Lydia said, pointing to one of the rooms. “This is the girl’s room.” We looked in the rooms; there were two bunkbeds in each room, for a total of four beds. “This is my room right here, during initiation.” She pointed to a third room. In my house, that was my parent’s room. She turned to face us. “When we have transfers, we issue new clothing, but since we have no transfers, you’ll just need to go pick up your clothes from your parents’ houses. Since you’re only here for the next month, you’ll only need to pick up your summer clothing. You will find a large backpack on your bed in order to carry everything in. It’s larger than you need for your clothing, but you’ll need the larger size later for some of our community service projects.”

She looked around at all of us. “After you gather your things, we can get dinner started. I’ll see you all back in a little bit.”

We file into our rooms. Each bed had a small stack of grey bedding on it, along with a large grey backpack. I pick one of the bottom bunks, and grab the backpack off of the bed. “This backpack is almost as big as me,” I comment.

Since Susan and I were neighbors, we walked to our parent’s homes together. Our temporary home for initiation wasn’t very far away, so the walk was short.

“I was surprised to see Caleb transfer,” I remark on our walk.

I could see a slight frown on Susan’s face, but it was clear that she was trying to live her Abnegation values and not try to draw attention to herself by showing emotion. “What’s done is done,” she says quietly. It seemed clear that she didn’t want to talk about it.

When I got home, I saw Mother in the kitchen. She was making soup.

“Hello, Mother,” I say.

She smiled at me. “Just getting your things?” she asked.

I nod, and head up the stairs.

It didn’t take long to pack my meager possessions. I didn’t need to pack any winter clothing for the next month, so I just packed my summer clothing, a pen and paper, a sewing kit, my Bible, and my toiletries. I didn’t own much else, since we weren’t supposed to have things that were frivolous in Abnegation. Even when I was young, we didn’t have a lot of toys; those things were considered to be selfish.

Only a fraction of my backpack was full, but I suppose that it’s large size would come in handy when delivering supplies to people. I went down the stairs and gave my mother a hug before heading back to the initiate house.

“I’ll miss you,” she says.

“I’ll miss you too, mom,” I say. “I’ll see you around.”

**Tobias**

Today we would be throwing knives.

My team won the capture the flag game the night before. I chose the more agile initiates to be on my team; while they did stand around bickering for a bit about what role everybody was going to play, they finally did get together and captured their flag first. Eric is not too happy about it. He hates it when I do things better than him.

“Tomorrow will be the last day of stage one,” Eric says. “You will resume fighting then. Today, you will be learning how to aim. Everyone pick up three knives.” He smirks at me. “And pay attention while Four demonstrates the correct technique for throwing them.”

The room is still for a second.

“Now!”

The initiates quickly scramble to grab the knives.

I wait until the clattering of the knives die down. I turn toward the target, holding a knife in my right hand. Carefully, I inhale, concentrating on the center of the target. I throw the first knife as I exhale, just like my initiation instructor, Amar, taught me. The knife hits the center of the target. A few of the initiates gasp. Inwardly, I smile. Knife throwing is something that I do well.

I throw a second and third knife, hitting the center of the target each time.

After I demonstrate my skill, Eric shouts “Line up!”

I walk to the side of the room, watching the initiates. It takes a while for the initiates to get the hang of things. Even Edward, the top-ranked transfer initiate, is having trouble.

Eric paces behind the initiates like a caged animal. Christina, the smart-mouthed Candor, is starting to figure things out. Peter is as well. Al, on the other hand, is having quite a bit of trouble. Despite his large size, he wasn’t doing well in general.

“Hey Al, do you know what a target is?” Peter taunts him. I hate Peter. He preys upon people’s weaknesses and tries to shrink them, just like Eric does.

Eric also notices Al’s poor performance. “How slow _are_ you, Candor?” he asks. Do you need glasses? Should I move the target closer to you?”

Al might be large, but he’s not very strong emotionally. Eric and Peter’s taunting hurts him. It almost looks like tears are forming in the corners of his eyes. Al’s next throw flies into a wall.

“What was that, initiate?” Eric says, walking up to him.

“It—it slipped.”

“Well, I think that you should go get it.”

The room becomes silent, and the initiates stop throwing.

“Did I tell you to stop?” Eric yells, raising his eyebrows and scanning the room.

This will not end well.

“Go get it?” Al asks. “But everyone’s still throwing.”

“And?”

“And I don’t want to get hit.”

“I think you can trust your fellow initiates to aim better than you. Go get your knife.”

“No,” he says, crossing his arms in a defiant stance.

Al finally stands up for himself. Unfortunately, this small act of rebellion is not likely to work out well for him.

“Why not? Are you afraid?” Eric gets right up into Al’s face.

“Of getting stabbed by an airborne knife?” Al shouts. “Yes, I am!”

Wrong answer.

“Everyone stop!” Eric yells. “Clear out of the ring.” He turns to Al. “All except you. Stand in front of the target.”

Al slowly walks to the target. I know what Eric plans on doing. Unfortunately, it will probably end with a major injury. It’s things like this, like hanging an initiate over the chasm, that have solidified my decision to leave Dauntless and become factionless once I’m done teaching this class of initiates.

While looking at Al, Eric says, “Hey Four, give me a hand here, huh?”

At least if I’m the one throwing the knives, Al probably won’t get hurt. This is not something that I want to do though. I don’t like to be cruel, and I don’t like being Eric’s lackey.

I scratch my eyebrow with a knife point, trying to act casual. This is not the kind of person that I want to be, throwing knives at emotionally weak people.

“You’re going to stand there as he throws those knives until you learn not to flinch,” he tells Al.

I can’t defy Eric. If I do, he will try harder to put me in my place. I try to act bored.

“Is this really necessary?” I ask.

“I have the authority here, remember?” Eric says. “Here, and everywhere else.”

We stare at each other for a second. Part of me wishes that I would have said yes when Max asked me to be a faction leader. I might have been able to prevent things like this from happening. Then again, Max I would end up being Max’s lackey. I’m not sure which would be worse.

Al stands there in front of the target. I inhale, and exhale as I throw the knife. It hits the board next to Al’s cheek. Al flinches.

“You can do better than that, Al!” I say, trying to encourage him.

“Throw again,” Eric says.

I move a second knife into my right hand. I pull my arm back and inhale, preparing to throw again. This time, I hit the board above his head. Al flinches again.

“Come on, eyes on me,” I say. Al is brave for standing there, but he has to be able to stand there without flinching before Eric will allow me to stop.

I prepare to throw again.

“Stop!” Al shouts. “I’m not going to do this. I quit.” He leaves the target and walks out of the room. Just like that, he’s factionless.

It disgusts me how the practices of Dauntless now cause someone to choose to abandon their faction like this. I’ve made my choice. It looks like Al has made his choice as well. While Al was not the strongest member of Dauntless and was probably going to get cut anyway, he shouldn’t have had to quit like this.

 

**Beatrice**

The Abnegation initiation process consists of thirty days of community service, followed by a quiet initiation ceremony where one of the elders reads the Abnegation manifesto, the initiate’s feet are washed, and then all of Abnegation shares a meal together.

I’ve been performing community service for nearly a week now. It’s not very exciting, but I guess that’s life. I know that I’m helping others, and perhaps am strengthening what little selflessness that I possess. So far, I’ve picked up trash, painted buildings, planted flowers, and handed out food in the factionless sector. Next week, I think we’re going to take a medical class so we can help perform first aid on any factionless that we find that might be injured.

My initiation roommates were a little boring. Susan and Mary were both fairly quiet people. Even though I’ve known Susan for years, and used to spend time with her while she hung out with my brother, it’s hard to get to know her. I’ve had Mary in some of my classes before, but I know her even less. They’re typical, quiet Abnegation girls.

After we finish our community service for the evening, Susan, Mary, and I usually sit downstairs and knit blankets for the factionless. The boys build things and make repairs. We get the newspaper and read it, or at least try to. Erudite continues to write lies about us in Abnegation. They claim that Abnegation has been hoarding goods to keep for ourselves. They claim that my dad beat Caleb and I, and that was why Caleb left for Erudite; on the other hand, I was supposedly a cowering mouse who didn’t have the guts to stand up to my family and leave. While I couldn’t say whether the stories about Marcus and his son Tobias were true, I know for a fact that my parents never hurt me, and that Abnegation wasn’t hoarding goods. I certainly was not someone that cowered in fear.

I don’t exactly regret my choice to join Abnegation; I just wish that there was more to life than this.


	3. Visiting Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visiting Day. Tris gets to meet up with her family for the first time, while Four decides to use his Visiting Day, which he once again spends alone, to find out some information.
> 
> As with the previous chapters, some of the dialogue may be familiar, if you are familiar with the entire Divergent series. Four's visiting day, and his mission, haven't changed much in Tris's absence.

**Beatrice**

Visiting day. I’m excited to see my family. I can’t wait to see my mom and dad. I miss Caleb as well, but I know I won’t be able to see him. At the thought of my brother, a lump forms in my throat. What does he think of all the things that the Erudite have been saying about his former faction, or about his family? I won’t know.

In the morning, I say goodbye to the other initiates and Lydia. Since Susand and I are neighbors, we walk the familiar streets of the neighborhood that we grew up in together, but we don’t really say much to each other.

I smile when I see the home I grew up in. My house. After initiation, I’ll go back to live with my parents, probably until I get married. To who, I don’t know. Michael seems to be interested in Mary, and I have no interest in Paul at all; he seems like a coward. I know that bravery isn’t supposed to be important in Abnegation, but I just don’t find cowardice to be attractive.

Had I chosen Dauntless instead of Abnegation, Visiting Day would have gone much differently than I expect today will. My parents might not even visit me. If they do, part of them will have seen me as a traitor. There would be a distance growing between us. Instead, I get to be an adult for the first time with my family.

I knock on my door, and my mother answers. “Hello Beatrice,” she smiles. “I’m so glad to see you.” She gives me a hug.

“Hello mother,” I say. “How are you?”

“Today is your special day,” my mom says softly, grabbing my wrists and looking at me. “How have you been? Has initiation been going well?”

“It’s fine Mom.” I look around the house. “Where’s Dad?”

“Dad had to be at work this morning. The leaders of Abnegation had an emergency meeting,” she says. It’s very odd for anybody to be working on Visiting Day, especially if they have a family. “Hopefully he’ll be able to come back for dinner.”

“Will you be visiting Caleb later today?”

“I can’t, although I’d love to. The Erudite aren’t allowing any Abnegation visitors.”

“That’s awful! Why?”

“I’m sure that you’ve read the articles that the Erudite have been publishing about us. Things have been very tense between our factions lately. That’s one of the reasons why your father had to be at work today.”

I wonder how Caleb will feel, waiting with the other Erudite initiates, looking to see his parents, ending up disappointed. Even though he kept secrets from me, and he joined a faction that has practically proclaimed themselves to be our enemy, I hate to think of him being hurt.

Mom smiles at me. “I’m glad that you chose Abnegation.”

That was an odd thing for her to say.

“I wasn’t sure what you would pick,” she continued. “You’ve always been so… spirited. I thought that you might choose Dauntless instead.”

“I did think about it.”

“Abnegation is a much safer place, if you had thought that Dauntless was a possibility.”

_Does she know that I’m Divergent?_

“The Dauntless initiation process sometimes reveals secrets that you wouldn’t want others to know,” she continues.

_What does my mom know about Dauntless?_

“I couldn’t have left you,” I say softly. “Not after Caleb left for Erudite.”

 

Mom goes to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

“Let me help you,” I say, following her.

“It’s your special day,” Mother says. “I don’t want to impose.”

“No, I want to help.” Mother takes out some carrots, and I start cutting them up. I may not naturally be selfless, but I do want to help my mom. She takes out some chicken and mashed potatoes as well.

Dad comes back home from his emergency meeting in time for dinner.

“How has initiation been so far?” he asks me as he walks through the door, setting his briefcase by the door.

“Fine. We’ve been helping out a lot of people.”

“Good to hear that,” he replies. “Helping others helps us learn to be more selfless.”

That is something I definitely need more of.

We sit down at the table, which, without Caleb, seems a bit bigger than the last time we were all together. This is our first meal together since Choosing Day; it’s also the first meal that I will be able to sit with my parents and talk with them at the dinner table as an adult.

I hold my parent’s hands, and my father thanks God for our food, and for the blessings that He has given us.

“How was your meeting today?” my mother asks after we finish praying.

“It went well,” my father says. “We have a lot of amazing things planned for the city.”

“What kind of amazing things?” I ask. It’s weird to actually be able to ask questions at the table, knowing that I wouldn’t get a disapproving look from my brother, and that I won’t be asked to listen instead of speak by my mother.

“I can’t tell you yet, but I will tell you that it’s going to be exciting, and it will change this city forever,” my father says. He sighs, passing the carrots to the right, just as we always have done from my earliest memories.

“It doesn’t sound like you have exciting good news that you’re keeping from us,” my mother says to him. She pats him on the hand to comfort him.

“We do have good news,” he says, “but Erudite’s reports can really wear you down after a while. The lies that they are now telling about this family, just like the lies they told about Marcus’s family.”

“I can’t wait to hear it,” I say, smiling as I cut my chicken. “The good news, that is, not any more of Erudite’s reports. I can’t stand seeing them.”

My father nods.

We don’t speak of Caleb. It is not normal to speak of former faction members, even those in your own family.

After dinner, I help my parents clean up the kitchen. Visiting day is over. It was nice getting to see my parents again. I missed them; life in Abnegation can be lonely. When the kitchen is clean, I say goodbye to them, and walk back to the initiate’s home, where I will stay for the next few weeks until I become a full-fledged member of Abnegation.

 

**Tobias**

Another Visiting Day. This year will be my last.

Visiting Day has never really been an event for me, like it is for so many other initiates. My father wouldn’t visit me, and even if he did, I wouldn’t want to see him. Everyone still thinks that my mother is dead, and I don’t particularly want to see her either. When I was an initiate, I spent the day in the training room with a punching bag. I spent last year in the training room as well, although I was invited to spend the day with Zeke and Shauna’s families.

This year will be a little bit different though. I am on a mission.

My mission starts in the control room. On my way up there, I pass the Pit, along with happy families sharing laughter and tears of joy that I’ll probably never get to experience. I see some of my initiates with their families: Will’s sister is here, dressed in light blue; Peter’s family is here as well, dressed in the black and white of Candor. Watching his family, I ponder over whether they were the people to make him into the person that he is, or if he became cruel for some other reason.

I stop by the chasm for a bit, looking over the railing. I see the steps in the stones along the opposite wall where Zeke, Shauna and I sometimes hang out; unless you know what you’re looking for, you probably won’t be able to see them. I smile, thinking of the good times that I’ve spent with my friends there.

I have more important things to do than remember old times, I remind myself. I continue on to the control room.

After I reach the control room and log in, I watch security footage switch between locations around the Dauntless compound. A crowd is gathered around the initiate entrance, probably taking turns testing out the net.

“Not into Visiting Day?” Gus, my supervisor, asks me. “I didn’t think I’d see you again until initiation was over.” He’s sipping on a mug of coffee. Although he’s not that old, he’s starting to grow a bald spot at the crown of his head.

“Figured I might as well do something productive,” I reply, shrugging. It was either this or spend the day in the training room.

Somebody jumps into the hole over the initiate entrance to Dauntless. It almost feels like I’m falling, watching him disappear below the pavement. Just watching, a knot forms in my stomach. It’s hard to get used to.

“They seem to be having a good time,” Gus says. “Well, you’re always welcome to work when you’re not scheduled to, but it’s not a crime to go have some mindless fun, Four.”

As he walks away, I mutter “So I’m told.” After a lifetime in Abnegation, sometimes it feels like I don’t know how to have fun.

The control room is almost empty. Only a few people are required to work on Visiting Day; usually the older Dauntless work today. Gus is looking at his screen, surrounded by two others, looking over footage from around the compound. I’m the only other person here.

I press a few keys, and footage that I saved last week pops up. It shows Max sitting at his computer in his office, pecking at the keyboard. He uses his index finger to hunt for the keys. Typing is not a common skill among the Dauntless. Max spent most of his Dauntless life patrolling the factionless sector; he probably never imagined that he would end up using a computer regularly. His poor typing skills make it easy to see what he is typing though. As I watch him, I verify that I have the correct password to his computer written on a piece of paper in my pocket.

Lately, Max has been working closely with Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the Erudite faction. After I started to suspect that they were involved in Amar’s death, I’ve looked for ways to investigate. Seeing him type in his password the other day gave me an additional way to find out more.

Max on the video footage types 084628. It matches the numbers in my pocket. Good. I bring up the security footage of Max’s office, along with the hallway outside. I take the footage out of rotation, so it will only play on my screen. I don’t want Gus and the other two to see what I’m about to do. The security footage normally rotates between whoever is monitoring the city. We’re not supposed to take footage out of the general rotation for very long, but we can if we need to look at something more closely. Hopefully I will be quick. I leave the room and head toward the elevators.

I take the elevator up to the tenth floor, where Max’s office is. Earlier in the day, I taped the lock to his door, so it wouldn’t shut completely. I don’t turn on the lights or move his chair when I go into the room; I don’t want to change anything that he might notice when he comes back. I plug a flash drive into his computer.

Max’s computer prompts me to type in a password. I type in the numbers on the paper in my pocket: 084628. The password works, and I have access to his computer. I quickly transfer the program onto his computer. Lauren, another initiation instructor, gave me this program, which allows me to control Max’s computer from my own. I told her that I was planning on playing a prank on Zeke. She was happy to help me out.

I finish installing the program, burying it in files that Max is unlikely to ever access. I put the flash drive and paper with Max’s password in my pocket, and log out. I leave the office, taking care not to leave visible fingerprints.

Although the whole process only took about five minutes, when I get back to the control room, Gus is staring at my screen. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. I hope that he didn’t see me break into Max’s office.

“Four,” he says to me, “why did you isolate this footage? You’re not supposed to take feeds out of rotation, you know that.”

I think up a lie quickly. “I… I thought I saw something. We’re allowed to isolate footage if we see something out of the ordinary.”

“So, then why did I just see you on this screen coming out of that same hallway?”

My throat is suddenly dry. “I thought I saw something, and I went upstairs to investigate it. I’m sorry, I just wanted to move around.”

I don’t look away as he stares at me.

“If you ever see something out of the ordinary again, you follow the protocol. You report it to your supervisor, who is… who, again?”

“You,” I say, looking down. I feel much smaller right about now, but if he thinks that I just made a stupid error, than that’s okay right now.

“Correct. I see you _can_ keep up. Honestly, Four, after over a year of working here, there shouldn’t be so many irregularities in your job performance. We have very clear rules, and all you have to do is follow them. This is your last warning. Okay?”

“Okay.” I’ve been caught before pulling feeds out of rotation to watch meetings between Dauntless leaders and with Jeanine Matthews before. I need to stop doing it. It never gives me any useful information anyway.

“Good,” he smiles. “Good luck with the initiates. You got transfers again this year?”

“Yeah. Lauren gets the Dauntless-borns.”

“Ah, too bad. I was hoping you would get to know my little sister. If I were you, I’d go do something to wind down. We’re fine in here. Just let that footage loose before you go.”

After he walks back to his computer, I feel myself relax. I’m lucky that I got away with it, this time. I shut down my computer and leave the room. Fortunately, now that I have that program installed on Max’s computer, I’ll be able to dig through the files on his hard drive to see if I can find anything.

 

After I drift off to sleep that night, I wake up to a knock on the door. “Open up!” a voice shouts.

My heart beats faster. Are Dauntless soldiers coming to my room? Did they find out that I’m Divergent, or that I put files on Max’s computer? Do they think that I’m a faction traitor? Is what happened to Amar going to happen to me?

I walk to the door, trying to calm my breaths. If Dauntless soldiers were coming to get me, I suppose they would be quieter, and they wouldn’t have Zeke’s voice.

“Zeke,” I say, opening the door. “What’s your problem? It’s the middle of the night.”

He has beads of sweat on his forehead, and he’s panting, like he just ran here.

“I was working the night shift in the control room,” Zeke tells me. “Something happened in the transfer dorm.”

Wonderful. “What?” I say. “To who?”

“Walk and talk,” Zeke says.

I put on my jacket and shoes and follow him down the hallway.

“The Erudite guy. Blonde,” Zeke says.

“Will?”

“No, the other one.”

“Edward.”

“Yeah, Edward. He was attacked. Stabbed.”

“Dead?” Limiting the number of initiates that can become Dauntless members has made everyone more cruel this year, it seems.

“Alive. Got hit in the eye.”

“In the _eye_?”

Zeke nods.

“Who did you tell?”

“Night supervisor. He went to tell Eric. Eric said that he would handle it.”

“Sure he will.” I roll my eyes, knowing what good that will do. I turn right, in the opposite direction of the transfer dormitory.

“Where are you going?” Zeke asks.

“Edward’s already in the infirmary?”

Zeke nods.

“Then I’m going to see Max.” I need to talk to him about what has been going on with the initiates, particularly with Eric. I also need to try to keep a closer eye on the initiates. I’ve been distracted too much with watching Jeanine and Max plot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think. Next chapter, Four and Tris finally run into each other for the first time since... probably Evelyn's fake funeral.


	4. Dauntless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrice meets Tobias for the first time since he joined Dauntless.

**Beatrice**

“Today we’re going to go do some errands in other factions,” Lydia tells us. “All of the factions, except for Erudite, help out the factionless by donating unwanted items: clothes that are no longer needed, leftover tools, and so forth. Every couple of weeks, we go to the other factions to pick up these donations. I’ll need three volunteers: one for Dauntless, one for Amity, and another for Candor. Would anybody be willing to go to Dauntless? I know that they can be a bit… intimidating.”

“I’ll go,” I volunteer. I’m not afraid of them. I almost chose to become Dauntless. Maybe going over there would almost be—an adventure. I could use some adventure in my life.

“Thank you Beatrice,” Lydia says. “If you find the trip unpleasant, we can always rotate which faction you go to.” I nod.

“I would like to go to Amity,” Susan says quietly. Maybe she’s hoping to run into her brother.

“Wonderful,” Lydia remarks.

Michael volunteers to pick up donations at Candor. The rest of the initiates will spend the day planting trees.

I take the bus to the Dauntless section of town. Since the majority of people are already at work, the bus is fairly empty. As a result, I get to sit down. I set my empty gray backpack on my lap and fold my hands on top of it. On the outside, I’m the perfect picture of Abnegation selflessness. I feel nothing like that in the inside.

The streets in our city are bumpy and full of potholes. In the center of the city, near the Hub, the streets are fairly smooth; Abnegation did some road work there several years ago, but we ran out of building materials before we could get to the outermost parts of the city. Some parts of the streets have even caved in; the buses have to be careful to drive around those areas. The road to Dauntless takes a while. I’ve never been there, so I don’t know what to expect.

The bus drives to a part of town where the buildings look decayed and run down. _This is it?_ I think to myself. I don’t even see how anybody could live here. One building looks like it is in repair and has a glass roof, but it doesn’t look like it could hold everyone from Dauntless. It’s only a few stories tall, and is not very large. There is another smaller building next to it that also looks like it’s not crumbling to the ground, but again, that can’t be large enough for an entire faction either.

“Where’s the entrance?” I ask the bus driver.

“Right there,” the driver says, pointing at a door in the building next to the one with the glass roof. I shrug my shoulders and thank the driver before getting off. I guess I’ll see how they fit all those people in there soon enough.

When the bus drives away, I can’t help but running. The streets are empty; there is nobody there to see me. Although my empty backpack flops behind me, I revel in the pure joy of my heart pumping and my muscles moving. It feels good to be free, if only for a moment. I slow down to a walk once I enter the Dauntless compound, replacing my elated smile with a stoic Abnegation mask. Inside the entrance, the pathway leads down. It’s dark inside; dim blue lights line the hallway. I am entering an underground cave.

 

**Tobias**

Training the initiates this year is more difficult this year than last year. Eric and Max are making sure of that. Maybe my feelings have to do with the fact that I have already decided to join the factionless, but I doubt it. My initiates have had to hang over the chasm and have knives thrown at them. The most recent event happened the night before, when Peter stabbed Edward in the eye, jealous that he came in second place. With the way that things are going, I’m not even sure that I’ll stick around until the end of training before I go join my mom in the factionless sector. I’ll stay as long as I have to in order to keep Uriah safe, but I’m not sure that I want to stay any longer than that.

As the initiation instructor for the transfer students, it was my job to clear out Edward’s belongings, just as I did with Al a few days ago, after he chose to join the factionless rather than endure Eric’s idea of training. I carried an armload of bloody sheets, along with Edward’s clothes and other belongings.

I see a small blonde girl in gray heading down the hallway from the main Dauntless entrance. Her cheeks were red and her hair was somewhat out of place, as if she had just been exercising. _Had she been running?_ Strange, usually only Abnegation children run.

She looks slightly familiar, but I can’t exactly place her. I wasn’t allowed to socialize much when I was in Abnegation, and people pretty much avoided me at school. Most thought that I was weird, because they never saw me outside of school. I was “sick” a lot as well. At least, that’s the excuse that Marcus gave the school when my bruises were so bad that I couldn’t be seen in public.

“Are you lost?” I ask her. We don’t normally see Abnegation grey in the Dauntless compound.

“If you’re trying to imply that I’m too small to be going someplace by myself, I’m not,” the girl replied sullenly, frowning. Not really the sort of reply I’m used to hearing from those in Abnegation. Perhaps this girl is insecure about her size, just as I am insecure about my name being attached to Marcus’s.

“I guess not,” I reply with a shrug.

“I need to find the donation center.”

So this is the person that will be picking up these bloody sheets and Edward’s stuff for the factionless. “I’m headed that way. I can show you how to get there.”

“Thank you.” The stubborn attitude seemed to have dissipated from her voice. As we walk down the hallway to the donation center, she seems to notice the large bundle that I am carrying. “Can I help you with that?”

She reaches towards the bundle of clothes that I am carrying, and her arm briefly brushes against mine as I hand her half of the items that I am carrying. The touch feels tingly and warm. “Thank you,” I tell her.

“I’m Beatrice,” she tells me.

That’s where I know her from. Beatrice Prior. She lived across the street from me.   I hope that she doesn’t recognize me. She probably won’t though. My father never let me go to her house whenever he went to eat with her family; besides, I’ve changed a lot since I left Abnegation for Dauntless. In addition to being older, I’m also more muscular, and carry myself with more confidence.

“Four.”

“Nice to meet you, Four.” A small smile turns up at the corners of her mouth.

As we walk down the hallway, she looks at the bundle that she’s carrying. “What’s up with these bloody sheets?”

“Most Abnegation aren’t that curious,” I reply tersely.

She shrugs. “It is a little odd. It doesn’t look like this came from a nosebleed.” She falls silent. I don’t answer her.

We arrive at the donation center. “This is it,” I tell her. I drop off the clothing that I had been carrying on the counter. “Do you know your way back?”

She stares in my eyes for a second. Most Abnegation aren’t that bold. They generally hold their heads down, especially among members of other factions. “I can find my way back.” She starts to fold the sheets and clothes neatly, placing them into a giant grey backpack that she had been wearing.

“Will you be coming back next time?” I ask. _Why did I say that?_

“I don’t think that anybody else is clamoring for the job, so more than likely,” she replies.

“Stay safe, Beatrice,” I tell her, leaving her to sort through and fold the donations.

_What just happened?_ I ask myself as I return to the Pit for lunch. We just talked, that was all. She wasn’t particularly nice; neither am I though. We’re not in the same faction. Then again, I’m about to go factionless. She wasn’t like anybody from Abnegation that I’ve ever met; she didn’t seem to fit into that selfless, quiet box that that faction expects. Part of me wonders whether I can manage to find a reason to return to the donation center in two weeks in order to see her again. Part of me tells myself that that’s just plain stupid; perhaps even dangerous.

 

**Beatrice**

On the bus ride back to Abnegation, I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with an apple that I have packed for myself. The amount of donated clothes that I got from Dauntless fills my grey backpack; now I see why it needed to be so large. Even though it is full of clothing, the bag is pretty heavy.

I smile to myself. It’s nice to get away from my faction for a while. I’ll definitely want to volunteer to pick up the Dauntless donations next time.

When I arrive back at Abnegation, I go to the redistribution center and drop off the donations. A man named Jeremiah is there waiting to pick up the clothes.

“I have the Dauntless donations,” I say, unloading the clothes.

Jeremiah looks at the bloody sheet. “What happened here?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure. It must be a Dauntless thing.”

He shakes his head. “Those people are crazy.”

Four didn’t seem that crazy to me. I’m not going to argue with him though. Whatever did happen there to cause this bloody mess isn’t something that I’d want to be involved in, but I guess is probably out of the ordinary. As I take the rest of the clothes out of my backpack, I notice that none of the other clothes are bloody.

After unloading the clothes, I walk back to the initiate’s house. When I get inside, I smile at Lydia, who is in the kitchen with Michael making tonight’s dinner.

“How’d it go?” she asks.

“It was fine,” I say. “I’d be happy to go next time if you’d like.”

She smiles at me. “That would be good.”

“At least I know how to get the donation center. It’s a little hard to find.”

I go back to my room and rest for a little while before dinner. I saw Mary downstairs, but it looks like Susan is still out at Amity. I went to Amity before when I was a kid; that faction is quite a distance away from Abnegation as well.

Laying back on my bed, I can’t help but smile. Was it just the freedom that I enjoyed today? I’m not sure. Meeting Four? I shake my head at the thought. He’s just another Dauntless member. Although he seemed different than every other Dauntless member that I could ever remember meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


	5. Alone By Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tobias and Tris aren't finding love interests in their own faction. Zeke once again tries to set up Four with a girl in his faction, while Tris is uninterested in someone who might be interested in her.

**Tobias**

Tonight is another quiet night. I’m not much into drinking and partying Dauntless style, so I spend a lot of time in the training room working out. While a lot of Dauntless have roommates, I have an apartment to myself. I prefer it that way. Remnants of my Abnegation upbringing, I guess.

Although I don’t have to work in the control room while I have initiates to look after, I come up here anyway this evening. I don’t mind a quiet night in the control room, especially when I am on a mission to find out the truth. Marcus taught me a lot about computers when I was a kid. It was one of the very few useful things that he did with me. I usually enjoy my job.

Since there aren’t many people in the control room tonight, I feel safe doing a little spy work. There are only three people monitoring the compound, and one of them is Zeke, who looks like he’s ready to nod off at any time.

I look through the video footage to make sure that Max is not having a late-night meeting, then I log into my fake account on one of the computers. I created it so that if anybody ever suspects anything, they won’t be able to trace my activities to me. Under my fake account, I log into Max’s computer. After I take control of his computer, I start looking into his files. Most of the files are to be expected: schedules, information on Dauntless members, supply lists, and other files that managers would have a reason to use. One of the files catches my attention. There is an odd list of supplies. Instead of supplies like food, tools, fabric, and other ordinary Dauntless supplies, this list contains weapons, syringes, and something called _Serum D 2_.

The amount of weapons that are being ordered are well above the amount that Dauntless would need for training purposes. This amount of weapons could only mean one thing: there was going to be an attack. Who would Dauntless want to attack?

My heart races. I don’t want to get caught looking at this information. I scan the room, but none of the control room workers seem alert. Zeke is playing a computer game; Maria, another control room operator, is half-asleep, leaning on an elbow with half-closed eyes. Wilson, the third control room operator, is stirring a water glass, gazing out the window. Nobody is paying attention to me, or even the Dauntless compound, for that matter.

I dig through Max’s files to find out more information. After a short while, I open a map. It’s full of letters and numbers, so I can’t really make out what it’s referring to. I cross-reference the map with another map that I have of the city, and discover where the attack is going to occur: Abnegation.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Erudite has been publishing story after story detailing terrible things about Abnegation for months. The only true thing, to my knowledge, that they’ve written has been about my father’s abuse. While I’m not sure why they have such a vendetta against Abnegation, the hatred is quite real.

Zeke taps his foot against my leg. “Shift’s over. Bedtime?”

“No,” I say, looking up. “I need a drink.” Something to get my mind off this new discovery.

“I’m your man!” he says, his face brightening.

I carefully log out of Max’s computer and out of my fake account, leaving no traces of my tampering for someone to discover. While I try to brush away all thoughts of the attack on Abnegation, it stays with me in my memory, even after I head down to the Pit with my friend.

“Hey,” Zeke says as we walk down the hallway, “I have someone that I want you to meet!”

I roll my eyes.  “Not another one of your blind dates,” I say.

Zeke smiles.  “It’s not like you can expect a girl to fall out of the sky for you.”

I laugh nervously.  No, I don’t expect a girl to fall out of the sky. _Maybe running down the hallway to the donation center?_ What am I thinking? I try to shake that thought from my head. I’ll probably never see that girl again, and even if I did, it’s not like we could be together…

I’ve come to the conclusion that there weren’t any Dauntless girls for me.  They all seemed to have the same character traits.  Most of them were far too reckless; they also seem way too touchy and show way too much skin as well.  They have too many piercings. It’s not beautiful to me. Maybe I’m just being picky, but I can’t help how I feel.

If I met the right girl someday, I’d certainly be interested, although at this point in my life, I don’t really want to get involved with anybody, since I’m about ready to join the factionless. Maybe I’ll meet a nice factionless girl. I don’t have high hopes though.

I don’t see the need to run after just any girl that I’m halfway interested in.  While the Dauntless were generally not religious at all, my parents did teach me that there was a God that watches over us; it seems to make sense to me.  It was one of the reasons why I painted “Fear God Alone” on the wall of my apartment.  If there is a God watching over me, I don’t really need to fear anything except Him.  That didn’t mean that I had no fears, but it probably helped me from having as many fears as most of the other Dauntless did.  It probably also helped me live with the fears that I did have; particularly the fear of heights, which I had to face every day in the Dauntless compound.

“Earth to Four!” Zeke waves a hand in front of my face. “Something on your mind? I was telling you about Pamela. Are you interested?”

“Not particularly,” I reply. I hadn’t really been paying attention to what he was saying to me, but if Pamela was like all of the other Dauntless girls that Zeke had tried to set me up with, then probably not.

 

When we get to the bar, we see Shauna. She waves to us, and Zeke gives her a hug and a quick kiss. “It’s nice to see you here, Four,” she says to me.

I smile back at her. “Nice to see you as well.” I order a beer from the bartender.

“I don’t see you here very often,” she remarks.

I rub my forehead. “Have a lot of things on my mind. It’s been a pretty stressful initiation, that’s all. I figured some alcohol would help.”

Zeke pokes me in the ribs. “My brother hasn’t been giving you any trouble, I hope.”

I shake my head. “No, Uriah’s great. It’s just a couple of the transfer initiates.”

A redhead with a geometric tattoo over her eye and a pierced lip joins us. “Hi Zeke,” she says, leaning on his shoulder.

“Four, this is Pamela,” Zeke says. “The girl I was telling you about earlier. She works out at the fence.”

“Hello,” I say politely.

“I’ve seen you around before,” she says, stepping a little too close into my personal space. I try to inch myself backwards a little. “Zeke says that you work with him in the control room.”

“Yes,” I say, taking a gulp of my beer. “We were initiates together.”

“I think that I was in the class before you.”

I nod. “Probably.”

“Yeah, you were,” Zeke says, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Four was number one in our class.”

“Is that so?” Pamela says, brightening. She reaches out and squeezes my right bicep. “I can see why. You must be really strong.”

Although this trip to the bar is taking my mind off of work, Pamela is not making this evening relaxing. I order another beer.

I’m not exactly sure how long I need to stay and talk to this girl in order to be polite, but as I talk to her, in the back of my head, I start to think of ways that I can leave and go back to my apartment.

After a while, I see Will and Christina standing by the railing at the edge of the Pit. I yawn, then look at my watch. “Sorry I have to cut this evening short,” I say. “I let time get away from me. Some of my initiates over there remind me that I have an early day tomorrow.”

“Going so soon,” Pamela says, disappointment in her voice.

“I’m afraid so. See you around.” I leave her and walk past Will and Christina, who are holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. I put on my best instructor face as I walk past them.

 

**Beatrice**

“This morning we are going to have a first aid lesson before we go out,” Lydia says. She is sitting in front of a human-shaped model of a person. We are all sitting downstairs on the grey furniture in the living room. I notice that Paul sits down next to me. “It’s important to know how to treat some basic injuries. Although the factionless are allowed to use our hospital system, some of them are reluctant to go; what little care they get from us might be all they will get.”

“First I’m going to show you how to stop someone from bleeding. Does anybody know the best way?”

Michael raises his hand. Lydia nods at him.

“Put pressure on the wound?” he asks.

“Yes. You’ll want to put pressure on the wound. If the wound is large, you’ll want to wrap some cloth around the injured part. When you go out to help the factionless, you’ll want to take some old cloth that can’t be used as clothing for that purpose.”

“Let’s practice,” she says. She presses a button on the human-shaped model, and red liquid seems to seep out of the model’s leg. “Beatrice, do you want to demonstrate what you would do if you came across a bleeding leg like this?”

Next to me, Paul looks like he’s about to faint. _What is he going to do when he’s facing actual blood?_

I get up and kneel next to my “patient”. Next to the model there is a large strip of cloth.

“It’s going to be okay,” I say to the patient.

“Excellent,” Lydia says. “Trying to calm the patient down is always a good idea.”

I wrap the cloth around the model’s leg, tying it tightly. “I’ll want to press down on the patient’s wound so the bleeding will stop, right?”

“Yes, you’ll want to keep applying pressure.” Lydia looks at the rest of the initiates. “Does anybody else want to try?

Susan shyly lifts a hand. She gets to try a stomach injury.

I notice that Paul is about as white as a ghost and looks like he might pass out. Perhaps he’ll be the first person someone will have to use their new first aid skills on.

 

After lunch, we fill our backpacks with medical supplies, clothing, and food for the factionless, and head out to try to use our newfound skills. Lydia told us that there may be some new factionless, as not everybody makes it through initiation. I’ve never heard of anybody getting kicked out of Abnegation’s initiation process, but I guess that other factions aren’t as welcoming.

After about an hour of handing out food and putting a couple Band-Aids on a couple of skinned knees, I hear somebody crying in an alley. Looking into the alley, I see a very large, blonde-haired boy in black clothes. He has a torn pant leg. I start to approach him.

“Hello,” I say, cautiously.

He stops sniffling for a moment. “Hi.”

“I’m Beatrice. Are you all right?”

He shakes his head. “I cut my leg on a rusty piece of metal.”

I frown. “Do you mind if I look at it?”

“Go ahead,” he says.

I kneel down to look at the damage. Behind the tear on his pants, I can see a large jagged cut. It looks like it has stopped bleeding, but living exposed to the elements will not be helpful for its healing. “When did this happen?”

“Last night.” He sighs. “I haven’t been factionless long.”

I nod. “I can put some anti-bacterial spray on this,” I say, “and bandage it up so it doesn’t get dirty. I don’t think that I have any spare clothes in your size, but I can sew this hole up as well. Would that be okay?”

He nods. “I’m Al.”

“It’s nice to meet you Al. First I’m going to push your pant leg up so I can take care of the cut,” I say. I push the fabric of his pants up past his knee. Looking in my backpack, I find the anti-bacterial spray. “This might sting,” I say. “You’re probably used to that, if you just came from Dauntless.”

Al nods. “Yeah, they made us fight each other until one of us became unconscious.”

I frown, and spray along the cut. I take out some of the rags that didn’t make the cut to hand out as clothing, and tear a strip that I can wrap around his leg. “That’s taken care of,” I say, “but I recommend that you go to the hospital to get a tetanus shot. There might have been some microscopic bugs on whatever cut you, and they can do some pretty bad things to you. I’ll take care of these pants next. Fortunately, these are loose enough that I can fix them while you’re still wearing them.”

I get out the sewing kit and cut a length of black thread. I thread a needle and tie a knot in the end. I sew up the tear in the fabric using careful stitches. When I’m done, I secure the seam so it won’t ravel.

“There,” I say. “It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but at least it won’t get caught on things.”

“Thank you,” Al says.

“Don’t mention it. Please, don’t forget to go to the doctor for a tetanus shot, okay? It was nice to meet you, Al.”

He smiles at me as I walk away. As I walk towards the main street, I notice that Paul is standing there watching me. I’m not sure what I should think about that.

 

Today we are going to hand out food to the factionless. Susan, Mary and I baked muffins for them last night. We don’t get to eat any of the muffins, of course; that would be selfish. At least I can be thankful that I always have a full belly when I go to bed at night. The factionless can’t say that.

As we walk to the factionless sector, Mary and Michael seem to group together. That’s how courtship seems to work in Abnegation. When you’re interested in someone, you tend to find opportunities to do volunteer work together. Eventually, the couple will have dinner at each other’s parents’ house. They won’t even hold hands with each other until after they are married. Physical touch is powerful, which is why unmarried couples don’t really touch each other.

Paul speeds up his steps a bit to walk next to me. _Oh great_ , I think to myself. He’s not bad looking. He has blonde hair and green eyes, and a shy smile. Not bad looking is about where his attractive traits end. He can’t even stand the sight of fake blood. I hope that walking next to me is not the first step to try to express interest in me. I’d rather have him go for Susan. Susan’s probably inwardly mourning the loss of Caleb to Erudite though.

“Hi Beatrice,” he says to me.

“Hello,” I reply with a slight chill. In Abnegation, we are not supposed to try to make other people feel uncomfortable, so I don’t, but I also don’t want to give him the impression that I want to have a relationship with him beyond friendship.

“I always get a little nervous when I go out to visit the factionless,” he says. “How about you?”

_Of course you do_ , I think to myself. This is one of the things that I don’t really like about Paul. I can’t respect a person who can be afraid of someone just because they’re factionless. “They’re just people,” I shrug. I was afraid of a factionless man once, the afternoon of my Aptitude Test, but that was only because he grabbed me. Even then, I knew that I could handle myself. I had made plans to hit him and run if necessary, but it didn’t come to that.

“They don’t have a moral code to live by like we do.” Every faction has a virtue that they strive to live up to. They either try to be selfless, brave, smart, kind, or truthful.

“That doesn’t mean that they don’t have a moral code.”

As we hand out the muffins throughout the day, I think to myself about how fortunate I am. There are kids among the factionless. These kids don’t have the chance to go to school like I did; they don’t have the chance to make the choice to join any of the factions like I did; they don’t get enough food to eat. They might not even stay healthy enough to live to adulthood. There are old people dressed in rags. There are moms and dads trying to feed their family on the meager credits that they get from cleaning up in offices, working in factories, or driving the trains. The credits are barely enough to survive, which is why we help out. The factionless live in abandoned buildings and rarely get the chance to shower.

I might not be that selfless naturally, but being with these people and seeing their suffering seems to grow the small amount of selflessness that I have. I was able to put some antibacterial spray and a bandage on a young child who had hurt their knee; I prayed with her parents that the cut would be fully healed and that she would not get an infection. Not everyone in Abnegation is religious, but my parents brought me up to respect God, and I figure that it’s helpful to know that there is a powerful deity that can help. Hopefully, praying with them can instill a bit of hope into what otherwise might be a difficult and hopeless life.

As I was handing out a muffin to a teen girl with dirty brown hair, I notice in the doorway someone that looked familiar. A woman with dark hair, stick-out ears, and a spare upper lip. I’m sure that I’ve seen her before, but I just couldn’t place her. She remained halfway in the shadows, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at her.

_Where have I seen her before?_ I try to push that thought from my mind.


	6. Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four goes to warn Marcus about the attack on Abnegation, and ends up running into Beatrice.

**Beatrice**

I couldn’t sleep. I had to get out of the house for a while. There isn’t really anything to do in the middle of the night in Abnegation, but at least if I can get outside and breathe the cool air for a while, it might help me think. Relax. Forget about the fact that I am a selfish person trying to live a lie in a faction designed for kind, selfless people. Forget about the fact that one of my fellow initiates, a coward, is interested in me, and I have to figure out a way to politely let him know that I am not interested.

I sit in the doorway outside the house and hug my knees. The cool night air feels good in my lungs. As I breathe in deep, a part of me feels lighter, freer. I look up at the stars. Their sparkles comfort me.

In a house across the street, Marcus’s house, I hear yelling. Curious, Marcus has lived alone ever since his son transferred to Dauntless two years ago. Who would be visiting Marcus this late at night, and why would they be yelling?

I watch the front door open. That boy, Four, that I met at Dauntless almost a couple of weeks ago, emerges. Why would Four be visiting Marcus in the middle of the night? Four starts walking down the street. I watch him for a moment, then get up and walk in a half-jog towards him, curious about what was going on.

“Four?” I ask, catching up to him a couple of houses away from Marcus’s. He turns around and looks at me, a look of shock on his face. I guess he wasn’t expecting anybody to be out at this time of night. Most people in Abnegation go to sleep fairly early. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same thing about you,” he replies.

“I live here,” I frown. “I’m sixteen. I’m not a child who needs a babysitter! You’re Dauntless. Why are you ?– Oh.” His dark blue eyes, coupled by the fact that I just saw him leave Marcus’s house, give him away.

 

**Four**

She knows.

It wouldn’t take an erudite genius to figure out; I was leaving Marcus’s house, and we have the same eyes. Surely she had heard the stories that Erudite printed about my father and how he abused me. A feeling of dread washes over me. I don’t exactly spend that much time around Abnegation, but what if she tells others? What if she holds my secret over my head, like Eric does at times? I look down at the ground, suddenly taking an interest in the cracked pavement beneath me.

“Tobias,” she says quietly. She didn’t say it like it was shameful, or like I was a poor soul to be pitied. Perhaps she can keep my secret. I hope that she can.

I look up at her. “People don’t know. Could you not mention it?”

“Who would I tell, Susan?” she rolls her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s nice and all…” she frowns. “Idle chatter isn’t really selfless, you know? I don’t – well, you know how it is, we don’t really make close…” her voice trails off.

I realized that I was staring at her. _Who is this girl?_ “Well, I wasn’t really allowed out of the house except for school.” I put my hands in my pockets. _Why did I just say that?_

Beatrice looks at me with a puzzled look on her face. “Were the stories… true?” She looks away. She seems embarrassed. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer that.”

I wasn’t really sure how to answer her. She already knows how I am; she probably heard me yelling at Marcus before I left the house. I’m not likely to see her that often in the future. “Yes,” I say quietly.

She frowns.

_Were the stories of her family true? Are her parents monsters as well?_ “Were the stories about your dad—”

“No. And I’m not a cowering mouse either,” she said petulantly, shaking her head. Despite her plain grey Abnegation clothes and small size, I couldn’t imagine this girl cowering. It’s good that her dad wasn’t like mine though. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Despite what my mother says, and what the Erudite say, I can’t imagine that all Abnegation members are corrupt.

In fact, one of the reasons why I chose to come out here this evening, to try to warn my father about the upcoming attack on Abnegation, was because of her. I don’t know her, and I don’t know why, but for some reason, I don’t want her to get hurt. Even though I still fear my father, knowing that my faction was going to go to war against her made me want to face my fears; to try to protect her and her friends.

“Beatrice?”

“Yes?”

Marcus didn’t believe me. He isn’t going to do anything to try to protect her, or the other people in Abnegation. I have to tell her. “I wasn’t out here tonight to relive old times or torture myself. I tried to tell my dad something important. He didn’t believe me though.”

“I’m sorry. It must be hard not having family members that you can talk to.”

I shake my head. “No, it’s not that. That, I’m used to. He’s leader of Abnegation though, and I was trying to tell him something important that’s going to happen to your faction.”

“Like what?” She scrunches up her eyebrows slightly.

I pause. “Well… I tend to be deeply suspicious of people in general. I typically expect the worst of them,” I nod in the direction of my father’s house for emphasis as to why. “I’m also unexpectedly good with computers.”

“Mmm hmm…” she nods at me.

“Anyway, I’m an initiation instructor at Dauntless, but the rest of the time I work in the control room. We monitor the Dauntless compound, and sometimes other areas of the city that we patrol. A few weeks ago, before training started, I was at work, and I found a way into the Dauntless secure files. Apparently, we are not as skilled as the Erudite are at security. I discovered what looked like war plans: thinly veiled commands, supply lists, maps. Things like that. And those files were sent by Erudite.”

“An attack?” she looked at me quizzically.

“Yes, on Abnegation, the faction that controls the government. I don’t know how, but they’re going to get Dauntless to attack Abnegation.”

“It’s obvious that Erudite doesn’t like us, based on all the news articles they put out. Does Dauntless hate us too?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think that Dauntless hates Abnegation; however, Dauntless training – they have been more cruel in recent years. It seems like they’ve been valuing cruelty and mercilessness over bravery.”

“I ran into a factionless guy from Dauntless the other day. He said that they had to fight until one person becomes unconscious.”

I nod. “Part of the new Dauntless attitude. We’ve always had fighting, but you used to be able to concede.”

She sighs. “I almost picked Dauntless. I’m not really that selfless – but I’m not cruel either.”

I wonder what things would be like if she had chosen Dauntless. Would she have become cruel? Would she become like the others? I couldn’t imagine her like the others in my faction, covered in tattoos and showing way too much skin. “Why did you pick Abnegation, if you don’t think that you’re selfless?” I almost picked Abnegation, but I had a good reason for picking Dauntless, even though I don’t think that I really belong there. I had to get away from Marcus.

“Caleb. My brother. He picked Erudite. I didn’t feel that I could transfer too. I didn’t want to hurt my parents like that.”

“That sounds pretty selfless to me.” There seemed to be sadness in her eyes. I want to reach out and touch her, to put my hand on her shoulder to console her, but that would be wrong.

“I suppose...” she sighs. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this—I shouldn’t—”

_Is she Divergent like me?_ If she was Divergent, she might have been in danger in Dauntless. She might have been hurt, like my instructor, Amar. Here she will be safe. Until the attack, at least.

“Stay safe,” I warn her, putting my hand on her shoulder. _Why did I just do that?_ “I’m not sure how they’re going to get Dauntless to attack, but be ready. Be ready to hide if you have to, okay?”

“I will. Thanks for warning me.”

“Be brave, Beatrice.” I walk away. Why did I tell her all of these things? Why does she make me so nervous?

I wish that she knew how to fire a gun. I don’t know if she would want to, but out of all the people in Abnegation, I think that Beatrice could handle it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you like what you've read so far. The outlines for the rest of this book are completed... it roughly corresponds to the events of Divergent. There should be at least four books to this series, if all goes well. Leave your comments below!


	7. Trash Pickup

**Beatrice**

This morning my task as an Abnegation initiate was to go into the factionless sector and pick up trash. I’m meeting my fellow initiates by the bus stop. On my way out, Marcus approaches me. I stop, inwardly shuddering.

“What were you doing last night talking to my son?” he asks sternly.

I think for a moment. “We were neighbors for fourteen years,” I reply coldly. “It would be selfish to ignore him.”

He scowls, although he can’t say anything against my Abnegation logic. He grabs me on my shoulder, and squeezes. Hard. It hurts. I frown. If I didn’t believe the stories before, then I would have no doubts about it now. I never knew Tobias well, but I would have hated to be on the end of his wrath for sixteen years. “My boy is a troublemaker. You know that!”

That I doubt. “Let go of me, it hurts!” I jerk my shoulder away. “It doesn’t really matter whether he is a troublemaker or not. He’s in Dauntless, we’re not. If he’s a troublemaker, he’s their problem, not ours!” I lie. I don’t think that Tobias is a troublemaker, but I’m not going to tell that to his abusive father, who just grabbed my arm. I have to deal with Marcus since he’s Abnegation’s faction leader, so I have to be careful with what I say to him. As for Four being in a different faction, I’d still love to see him again. “I need to go do my community service for the day, okay?”

He lets me go. As I walk away, I breathe out a sigh of relief. I don’t exactly want to speak with him. Ever. Unfortunately, I know that I will have to deal with him again.

 

Trash pickup isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. We concentrate most of our efforts in the factionless sector, picking up cans, empty wrappers, and broken glass that we find. The factionless don’t have the same access to trash services as we do in other sectors of the city. I feel fortunate that our homes around Abnegation are clean. The smell in this part of the city is awful.

“This place gives me the chills,” Paul says, approaching my side. “I hope that after initiation, I get a job where I don’t have to spend much time here.”

“I wouldn’t mind working with the factionless,” I reply, trying not to express any excess friendliness that he might confuse with having an interest in him. “At least I know that I would be doing some good in the world. I think, after initiation, I’ll ask my mother if she needs any help in her office with the city improvement projects.”

He wrinkles his nose. “I’m hoping that I can get a job as an assistant working in the city government.”

I see Susan out of the corner of my eye. She is next to a big pile of trash, putting the items into her trash bag. “Susan!” I shout. “Do you need any help?” Turning to Paul, I tell him. “It looks like she needs some help,” and head over her way.

“Hello Beatrice,” she says to me as I approach her. “Thanks for helping.”

I look behind me to make sure that Paul didn’t come with me. “You’re helping me,” I say quietly to her. “To get away from Paul.”

“He’s not that bad, is he?” she asks softly.

“It’s not that,” I sigh. “I’m just not interested him in the way that I think that he is.”

“Oh,” she nods.

At the end of the street, I see the flash of someone in black going around the corner. The factionless man’s build looked a lot like Four’s, and a hint of a tattoo peeked out of the edge of his collar, just like Tobias has. I quickly shake my head. _I’m imagining things._ Why would Four be out here? There are a lot of former Dauntless individuals among the factionless. Most of them with tattoos along their backs.

 

**Tobias**

“Susan! Do you need any help?” I hear a familiar voice as I walk around the corner. The Abnegation initiates are in the area, picking up trash. I see Beatrice walking over to one of her Abnegation friends. I walk quickly around the corner so she doesn’t see me. While I do like spending time with her, I don’t think that right now would be a good time for that. It probably wouldn’t be good for her to be seen talking to someone from Dauntless, especially right before initiation. Abnegation is very forgiving of people, but why cause any trouble for her? Especially with my dad as the faction leader.

I’ve been scouting out different locations to make a home for myself once I leave Dauntless. There are quite a few abandoned buildings around here; I was able to find a place that was suitable a couple of days ago. It’s not too far away from Abnegation, so I can keep my eye on Beatrice and make sure that she stays safe. The building itself looks empty; I would prefer not to be around too many people that might want to ask questions. Especially with my mom taking a leadership position among the factionless.

While on my scouting trips, I was also able to find an abandoned gun range. Although I may be leaving Dauntless, I don’t plan on abandoning my ability to protect myself. Locating myself close to a gun range is not a bad idea.

Today I plan on stopping by my future home in the abandoned building. I’m carrying a backpack with a blanket and some things that I might need once I start living there full time. I’m sure that I can go to my mom and get whatever I need, but I’d prefer not to be dependent upon her. She and I do not see eye-to-eye on the upcoming war between Abnegation and Erudite. She seems to have let her hatred for Marcus cloud her judgement on what everyone in Abnegation is like. She seems to be under the impression that they are all corrupt. I don’t know Beatrice that well, but she seems worth saving to me. The people picking up trash with her seem like they are trying to do something good as well.

My new apartment is a simple room a few floors up. I spread out my blanket on the floor. There’s also a cabinet where I can put the food, clothes, and ammunition that I brought with me. _This will do_ , I think to myself. Being an initiation instructor has its perks. I’ve been taking some extra ammunition throughout the last few weeks so that I would have some here.

I look out the window; the Abnegation initiates are on the sidewalk below. One boy seems particularly interested in Beatrice. He’s standing right next to her, and they are picking up trash together. He’s not touching her, but in Abnegation, they don’t. A sharp pang of jealousy courses through my veins. I look around my new room. I couldn’t ever ask her to live here with me; nor do I think that she’d want to. I want her to be happy. I lean up against the wall. Maybe it would be better if she was with him.

After the Abnegation initiates have moved on, I leave my new room and head back to the train. I’m stopped by a factionless teen. Myra.

Myra was one of my initiates. She transferred to Dauntless from Erudite, with her boyfriend Edward. She was never cut out for Dauntless; she should have stayed in Erudite. She was about to get cut from Dauntless about the same time that her boyfriend was stabbed in the eye. They both left Dauntless and became factionless together.

“Four?” she asks. “What are you doing here?”

No reason to tell her that I’m going to join the factionless until I do. “I was in the control room and I noticed some suspicious activity going on in the factionless sector,” I lie. Myra has never worked in the control room, so she wouldn’t know that we don’t monitor this area. “I decided to go check it out myself.”

“Oh.”

“How have you been?” I ask, shoving my hands in my pockets.

She sighs. “I’ve been better. Me and Edward broke up.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“He’s been hanging around Evelyn a lot. Do you know who she is?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of her.” _More than you know._

“I should have stayed in Erudite.” She looks down, putting her hands in her pockets.

I didn’t know what to say to her. “It would be nice if we could change the past and redo things, huh?”

“Yeah. I would have stayed in Erudite.”

I look at my watch. “I have to catch the train, Myra. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

_So Myra and Edward are no longer a couple_ , I think to myself. Their relationship always seemed like superficial infatuation to me, but still, I feel bad for her. She could have probably lived a perfectly content life in Erudite if she hadn’t been in a relationship with Edward at the time of her Choosing Ceremony.

I ponder the ramifications of making sure to make the right choices as I head towards the train that will take me back to Dauntless. It was almost graduation. It is almost time for me to go factionless. Once they discover that I have left Dauntless, there won’t be any turning back.


	8. Four Again

**Tobias**

“Have anything that you want to donate to the factionless today?” I ask my friend Zeke. While I don’t have a particular interest in charity, I do have a particular interest in going down to the donation center today. Today is the day when a representative from Abnegation will stop by and pick up donations. My hope is that Beatrice will be there. I looked up the bus schedule to find out when she’ll probably stop by.

“Feeling a little stiff today?” he asks, poking me in the ribs, referring to the fact that I originally transferred from Abnegation myself.

I scratch my ear and look down, avoiding his gaze. “Nah, I was cleaning out my closet, and while I’m going down there, I was just wondering if there was anything that you wanted me to take,” I lie.

“Not today,” Zeke says. “Maybe next time.”

I smile, waving to my friend goodbye as I go to my apartment. _Hopefully I didn’t give anything away_ , I think to myself. Not that I stand a chance with her anyway. _Even if she liked me, how could we make it work, being in two separate factions?_ There’s no way that I could ask her to become factionless for me.

I grab some old shirts that I wanted to get rid of and check my watch. _Time to head down there_ , I think to myself.

My timing was perfect. I arrive at the hallway near the donation center just at Beatrice is coming down, her cheeks once again red, as if she had been exercising.

“Four!” she says to me, smiling. I’m not sure if she’s smiling because she is happy to see me, because we share the secret of who I really am, or both. Either way, I’m glad to see that she’s happy. “Surprised to see you here.”

I can’t help but smile. _Can she figure out that I came here on purpose?_ “I was cleaning out my closet, and I had some old shirts that I wanted to donate.”

“Thank you.” She offers to take them from me. As I hand her my shirts, I once again feel an electric feeling at the touch of her hands. Now that I’ve given her my donated items, there isn’t really any reason for me to stay, but I don’t want to leave.

“Beatrice, uh, I was wondering,” I say, looking down at my shoes. “About the thing that I told you about the other day. Are you going back to your parents’ house after initiation?” _Please let her be moving back to her parents’._ The only reason why she wouldn’t is if she was going to get married after initiation. Maybe to that guy that was picking up trash with her. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, when people fall in love during their last few years of school, they end up getting married right after initiation.

“Of course.” _That’s good to hear._ She gives me an odd look on her face.

“Which room is yours?” I ask. “In case I need to reach you for any reason?” She must think that I’m dumb. Why would I need to contact her? “To let you know what’s going on with the attack and everything.” I guess that’s a decent excuse to want to reach her.

She looks at me, slightly puzzled. “It’s in the back. If you go up the stairs and make a right, it would be in that corner.”

“Oh, okay.”

She smiles at me. We stand there, looking at each other, for a little bit too long. Did she forget what she came here for?

“I’m not sure what’s going on still, but I want you to stay safe,” I tell her.

“I will.”

I start to walk away. Since I don’t have my shirts any more, it would look strange for me to be walking to the donation center with her. “Four,” she stops me.

I look back at her. “Yes?”

“Your father—he grabbed me the other day.”

I look at her quizzically. I unconsciously tense up, balling my fists in my hands. “What?” I can feel a sense of instant stress in my clenched teeth.

“I guess that he saw me talking to you the other day. He wasn’t really happy about that. He said that you were a troublemaker.” She looked down at the ground for a second, then back at me. “I don’t really believe it though.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“He has some strong hands. He grabbed me on the shoulder,” she said, rubbing her shoulder. “I’m fine, but I thought that you should know.”

I frown. All I did was talk to her, and he’s already hurting her. “Thanks for telling me.” I don’t know what I can do, but I certainly do not want him hurting anybody else the way that he hurt me and my mother. I’m not sure what I can do though. I can’t really help her while living in Dauntless, and going factionless isn’t really going to change anything either.

 

**Beatrice**

Tomorrow is graduation day for all of the initiates. I’ve attended Abnegation’s initiation ceremony every year for my entire life, and it looks like I will continue to do so for the rest of it. This year, I will sit on a bench next to my fellow initiates while we listen to the Abnegation manifesto, which is simply a short paragraph extolling the virtues of forgetting ourselves and warning us of the dangers of selfishness. After that, one of the senior members of Abnegation will wash my feet. We will all serve each other dinner afterwards.

I’m not that excited about it; everybody passes Abnegation’s initiation process. It’s not like my life is going to go from dull to thrilling afterwards, either. I’ll probably get a job working with my mom on city improvement projects. Well, as long as there isn’t a war to get in the way of everything.

Today, on the other hand, I am on cloud nine. Four was there to greet me at Dauntless. He wanted to find out where I was going to be living after initiation. Sure, his only interest seems to be in making sure that I don’t get hurt – why is he interested in that? He must figure that I’ll be able to get the word out to other Abnegation members and be able to help them as well. I must be the only person he is in contact with from Abnegation, so he’s telling me. I’m not sure how I would tell others though. I’m not anybody important in Abnegation, and Marcus, the leader, doesn’t seem to be very fond of me.

He can’t be – no, he couldn’t be interested in me. We’re not even in the same faction.

Nevertheless, just seeing Four makes me happy. My elation stays with me all the way back to Abnegation, even after I drop off the donations and go back to my dorm room. I can’t help but smile as I flop back on my bed.

“What are you so happy about?” Mary asks.

“It’s just such a lovely day to be out helping others.” I could never be in Candor. I lie too easily.

“This is our last day as initiates,” Susan adds quietly. “That’s something to be happy about.” She must have left early that day to go to Amity, since she’s already back. I can see that she’s already packed most of her belongings into her gray backpack, ready to go back home.

“Yes, that too,” I add, rolling to my side.

“It’s good to smile,” Mary says. “It’s just so rare to see you like this.”

It’s too bad that I can’t really tell them what’s making me so happy. It would be scandalous to get involved with someone from another faction, especially someone in Dauntless. My dad always calls them hellions, but Four didn’t seem like a troublemaker to me. Then again, I guess, if we did start seeing each other, it would cause trouble. But that’s only wishful thinking on my part.


	9. Shooting Lesson

**Tobias**

“Zeke, I need to talk to you,” I say to my friend. The Pit that evening was loud and full of people celebrating the new graduates. “Could we go to your apartment or something?”

“Sure,” Zeke replied, with a puzzled look on his face.

When we arrived at his small apartment, I tell him “Congrats on Uriah getting first place.”

“Thanks!” Zeke’s grin stretches from one ear to the other. “I’m sure that you had something to do with it.”

I shake my head. “Uriah was graded fairly, just like everyone else.”

Zeke looks at me with concern. “You didn’t make me leave the graduation party to congratulate me on my brother. What’s going on?”

Even though it’s just us, I subconsciously look around me. “I’m going factionless,” I tell him quietly.

Zeke raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“You know how the Dauntless Manifesto says that we value ‘ordinary acts of bravery?’ Well, we don’t seem to do that anymore. We reward people like Peter, who stabs a fellow initiate in the eye, and we don’t value people like Edward, who trains hard and performs well. It’s wrong.”

Zeke frowns. “I see what you mean.”

“Anyway, I thought you should know.” I shove my hands into my pockets. “Don’t mention it to anyone. They’ll figure it out eventually, when I don’t show up for work.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to miss you, Zeke.”

“Me too.” Zeke frowns, which is unusual for him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

I nod. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I only stayed this long to help out Uriah.”

I guess that this is the point, if I didn’t have Abnegation tendencies, that I would hug my best friend., but since I tend to be slightly touch-averse, I just give him a nod as I leave him and head to my Dauntless apartment for the last time.

When I reach my apartment, I grab my backpack, which I had loaded up with clothes, two guns, some ammunition, a portable lamp, and some food. I look around the room, trying to take in the sight. While Dauntless didn’t exactly leave me with bad memories, like I had as a child, I can’t exactly say that the last couple of years have been happy times either. I turn off the light one last time and head out the door.

It’s dark outside when I leave the Dauntless compound. I hop on the train headed to the Abnegation sector, jumping off at the edge of the neighborhood. I walk to the back of Beatrice’s house, taking care to avoid my old house and Marcus.

All of the Abnegation homes are laid out exactly the same. Beatrice’s house looks exactly like mine. Her window is has the same placement that mine had in my childhood home.

I pick up a couple of pebbles and toss them at her window, then hide behind a tree. The rocks aren’t knives, but I only have to be accurate enough to get her attention without breaking a window.

In less than a minute, she opens the curtains and looks out. Seeing her, I step out from behind the tree and wave. She notices me and smiles.

A few minutes later, she comes out from around the house.

“Hello,” she says to me.

“Hello,” I reply. “How was graduation?”

“It was fine. My dad washed my feet.” She smiles. “I’m glad that it wasn’t your dad. It’s good to be with my family again.”

“I want to show you something,” I tell her. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

“Sure.” As I turn to go to my destination, she walks beside me.

Its seems odd to me. A lot of Dauntless people find me to be intimidating. Perhaps it’s because I’m the guy with four fears. Maybe it’s because I purposely try to make myself intimidating in front of the initiates. Beatrice, on the other hand, seems to have no problem taking a walk with me, a guy that she barely knows, in the middle of the night. She’s either very brave, very trusting, or not very smart. I don’t think it’s the latter.

We walk for a while until we leave the Abnegation sector. The moon is out, which gives us some light to walk by.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“We’re almost there.” We soon reach the abandoned building that I was looking for. “Right here.”

I light the lamp when we get inside, and place it on a table in the room. “You don’t get frightened easily, do you?”

“My brother used to try to scare me by bringing in snakes and bugs,” she replies, wrinkling her nose. “But no, I don’t normally get scared easily.” She tilts her head and looks at me. “You didn’t take me all of this way to show me a spider, did you?”

“No,” I laugh. “But if you were easily frightened, you might not like this either.” I take the guns out of my backpack and put them on the table. Her eyes widen. “I want to teach you how to use this.”

“Wow,” she exclaimed, brushing her hand along the side of one of the weapons. “I’ve never seen one of these up close before.”

“I don’t imagine that you would, in Abnegation,” I say dryly. I put silencers on both of the guns. I didn’t really want to bring attention to the noise in the middle of the night. “This is an old gun range. I thought that it might be a good idea if you could defend yourself when the attacks happen. Obviously, you won’t want to keep a gun with you in an Abnegation house, but I can get it to you if you ever need one.”

“Okay.” She looks at me quizzically. “Why do you want to teach me?”

“Because you’re one of the few people in Abnegation that I think would be okay with firing a gun.” I hand her one of the weapons. “Don’t point it at anyone or anything unless you want to shoot them.” I show her the safety on the gun. “Flip this switch when you want to take the safety off.” I flick the safety off. “See the red dot there? That shows you that the safety is off. Just remember, red means ‘you’re dead.’ Also, never stick your finger here,” I point to the trigger, “unless you plan on shooting.”

We are at the end of the gun range. I had already set up targets on the other end of the wall the other day, but I go set another lamp up at the other end of the room, near the target.

Before Beatrice picks up her gun, she takes off her Abnegation robes, revealing a tight-fitting t-shirt underneath. My heart beats a little faster, just watching her. She blushes as she sees me looking at her.

“It’s probably easier for me to learn to aim if I don’t have all this extra clothing in the way,” she explains, looking down.

I smile. I can relate to being stuck in all those layers of Abnegation clothing. Right about now, I can also relate to why Abnegation always insists on chaperoned dates, which usually consist of going to dinner and spending the evening with each other’s parents, rather than allowing couples to go out by themselves, like they do in Dauntless. Beatrice is small but beautiful. I could imagine myself, if we knew each other better and actually had a chance with each other, rather than being stuck in different factions, putting my arms around her waist and kissing her – not like I would kiss a sister, if I had one, but like I see Zeke kissing girls when he goes out on dates. Abnegation frowns on public displays of affection, and even hand-holding is typically something that you’re supposed to wait for marriage for.

I want to reach out my hand and run my hand through her long blonde hair, which is down instead of in her typical Abnegation bun (she must have taken her hair down when she was ready to go to bed), but I resist the urge.

 

**Beatrice**

I’m a little self-conscious as I take off my Abnegation robes. My tight t-shirt is about as little clothing that I’ve worn around anybody outside of family, ever. Tobias is watching me; I feel embarrassed. He probably is wondering how someone so small and with such a flat chest could actually be 16.

“Let me show you how to aim.” I watch him carefully as he stands with his feet apart, puts both hands on the gun, aims at the target on the far side of the wall, and pulls the trigger. He hits the center.

I pick up my gun and try to re-create his stance. My family wouldn’t approve of me shooting a gun. Self-defense, they would say, is self-serving. If Abnegation really was attacked, I think to myself, then protecting ourselves, in a way, would also be protecting others. So could it really be all that self-serving?

I wrap my hands around the gun and release the safety. Red means you’re dead. The gun is heavy, but I don’t really want it near me when I pull the trigger, so I hold it as far away from my body as I can. As I pull the trigger, hesitantly, I flinch, and the recoil sends my hands back, and I stumble backwards. Four places his arm behind me and catches me. I feel a pulse of electric energy at his touch.

“I guess you weren’t expecting that,” he tells me. He stands behind me. “Here, let me help you. Hold your arms out as if to fire again.”

I stand like I did before, holding the gun out like I saw him do before. Four is standing behind me, reaching his arms out and covering my hands with his. The feeling of his arms against mine, his body against mine, is making me nervous, but I like it. I’m sure that my parents wouldn’t approve of this either.

“Fire again.”

I pull the trigger again. This time, I’m more ready for the recoil. I stumble back just a little, but Four holds me steady. I try a few more times. Each time, I’m more confident and fire better. Four’s presence, on the other hand, is still making my nervous. I feel jittery.

“You’re shaking,” Four comments. “Are you afraid?”

“Not of the gun.”

“What are you afraid of?”

I put down the gun and turn towards him. I feel heat rising up in my cheeks. “I barely know you, Four,” I stammer, blushing, “and you’re standing right behind me like this.”

He smiles, reaching his hand out to brush my cheek. “Are you sure? I think you might be cut out for Candor, Beatrice,” he tells me, “because I think that you’re a terrible liar.”

“I think my aptitude test ruled that one out pretty well.”

“The aptitude test tells you nothing.” He lightly runs his hand along my cheek.

He’s standing close to me; about six inches away. I put my hand on his chest. I can feel his heart beating rapidly. “What about you? Your heart is beating fast like mine is.”

I can see him blush, even in the dim light. He must like me too.

He puts his hand on my hip and smiles. “I think I like you” he says quietly.

I frown. “Well, this isn’t good.”

He looks at me suspiciously. “Why?”

“You’re older than me, Four, and you’re Dauntless, while I’m in Abnegation. How could that work out?”

“I’m actually factionless now.”

I raise an eyebrow at him.

“I left today, during the graduation party.” He sighs. “Dauntless has changed. I was an initiation instructor; there was a guy in my initiation class this year – another initiate stabbed him in the eye, and nobody did anything to him.”

I frown.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. They gave all of the Dauntless injections this afternoon. They said that it was a tracking device in case we’re reported missing. It seemed a little suspicious.”

“So they’ll know where you are when they haven’t seen you for a day or two?”

Four shrugs. “I suppose. But why would they worry about tracking us? We’re Dauntless. We’re always out patrolling places, and they haven’t worried about any of us going missing before.

_That does sound weird_ , I think to myself.

“If you’d like, we could still meet each other sometimes.”

I smile. “I’d like that.”

“Promise me that you won’t do something stupid. We had a couple transfer into Dauntless together. One of them should have stayed in Erudite. They both ended up factionless, and now they’re not even together. You’re much safer in Abnegation.”

“I can stay put. Although my safety is only good as long as we aren’t attacked.”

He looks me in my eyes. “About that. If you’re attacked, then I want you to be able to find me. There’s a building with a basement in it. It’s at the intersection of North and Fairfield, near the edge of the Abnegation sector. It’d make a good safe house. I’ll meet you there. Suggest to your family that they go there too.”

“Sure.”

We practice firing the gun for a little while longer before heading back. I start to get fairly decent with hitting the target. It’s still dark when I get home, in time to get some sleep. As I drift off to sleep, I can’t help but smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. The book is finished, along with most of Dauntless (the next book in this series of probably 4). So far, it's twice as long as this one. I wrote so much during NaNoWriMo that I think I got burnt out for a while.
> 
> I'll get the next five chapters out as soon as I can get them polished up a bit. Writing Dauntless helped me realize that this could use a bit more work. I did revise the first 8 chapters as well, but since there were no major plot changes, it's not necessary to reread them if you already have.


	10. The Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The attack on Abnegation begins.

**Beatrice**

“Beatrice!” I hear someone pounding on my door. It sounds oddly like my brother.

 _It’s too early to get up_ , I think to myself. It’s still dark outside. _So tired._ It didn’t help matters that I was up late with Tobias last night for my shooting lesson. I put my pillow over my ears, trying to muffle the sound.

“Beatrice!”

The insistent noise won’t stop. I guess I have to get up, eventually. “What’s going on?” I mumble, still half-asleep.

“We need to get out of here! Abnegation is going to be attacked!”

That wakes me up. I sit up. “Really?”

I get up and open the door. Caleb is standing outside, wearing his old Abnegation clothing. I guess that Mom and Dad hadn’t gotten around to donating it yet. “Erudite is attacking Abnegation?”

“I found out yesterday,” Caleb tells me. “They injected all of the Dauntless members with serums that will control what they do. They’re coming to Abnegation this morning to attack us. We need to get out of here.” He looks at my funny. “Wait, how did you know Erudite was attacking?”

I think of a lie quickly. “I figured that it must be Erudite if you knew about it in advance and are now wearing your old Abnegation clothes.” I shrug, trying to act casual.

Suddenly, I remember Tobias. I wonder where he is. I wonder if he’s okay.

“I know where we can go,” I say, remembering the meeting location that Four gave me. If he’s okay, then he will probably want to meet me there. “There’s a building with a basement at North and Fairfield. It’s close to the edge of town; it’ll make it easier to escape. We should go there.”

Caleb looks at me thoughtfully for a second. “Good idea.”

“I need to change my clothes real quick. Then I can get out of here.”

“Hurry!”

I close the door and quickly change into my clothes for the day. In Abnegation, we don’t have many possessions, so I’m ready to go. “Okay, let’s go,” I say, opening the door and bounding down the stairs.

Father and mother are already up and ready to go. We leave our house quietly. Father goes to knock on Marcus’s door to warn him. Mother knocks on John and Tessa’s house; they’re our neighbors to one side of us.

Father rejoins us after he speaks to Marcus. “I should have known that they would try to stop us like this,” my dad mutters.

“Like what?” I ask.

“Remember when I told you that we had major things planned for the city? I think that they are trying to stop us.”

 _Curious_. I nod.

After knocking on the doors of several of our neighbors, we finally reach the safe house. We all head down into the basement. “We need to stay as quiet as possible,” Father says.

“We should have a signal when it’s one of us coming,” Mother suggests. “Knock two times, then three times, then six times.”

“I need to go get Susan,” Caleb says.

I want to smack myself on the head. How could I have been so selfish to not warn Susan as we made our way to the safe house? If I had not been thinking so much about myself and Tobias, Caleb wouldn’t have to go risk his life now.

“Be careful,” I tell him.

“I need to try to go save the information,” Mother says. She reaches behind her and pulls out a gun that had been tucked in her waistband.

“Mother?” I was shocked. She is probably the last person that I would ever imagine with a weapon.

“There are some things about me that I’ve never told you,” she says. “One of them is that I know how to use a gun. I might need it to protect myself, and the information.”

“Stay safe,” Father tells her, giving her a hug. He doesn’t seem to be surprised.

“It’ll be okay,” she assures him. I rush up to her and give her a hug.

“Do you have to go?” I ask.

Mother nods. “It’s important.” I watch her go upstairs.

And so we wait. Some of our neighbors, including Marcus, arrive. Paul is among the growing group of Abnegation members that show up. When he sees me, his smile brightens. He sits down next to me, although he doesn’t sit too close. This is Abnegation, after all.

I wonder to myself what’s going to happen when Tobias gets here.

Pretty soon, there is a small crowd of us waiting for my mother and Caleb to get back. In Abnegation, we are normally quiet, even in a large group. Today, we are especially quiet. Nobody wants to attract attention from the outside world.

After a while, we hear the secret knock. Caleb steps inside, alongside a ghostly white Susan. I get up to hug my brother. “I’m glad you’re safe,” I say quietly.

I look at Susan. “My dad already left for work,” she says softly. “I heard some gunshots while we were walking over here.”

The attacks have already begun.

I look over at Susan. “I’m so sorry.”

My mind drifts off to Tobias. Is he safe? Is he under the influence of the serum? He did say that all of Dauntless was injected, and he didn’t say that he wasn’t. Could he be out there killing my neighbors and fellow faction members? The thought twists my stomach in revulsion.

I silently say a prayer for both him and my mother.

 

**Tobias**

After taking Beatrice back to her house last night after her shooting lesson, I walked back to my new apartment in the abandoned building, It might not be the most wonderful place to live, but I don’t care. Not with thoughts of Beatrice filling my mind. I drift off to sleep, imagining a different world where factions don’t matter, and I can be free to see her as much as I want without upsetting anybody.

I sleep well, until I hear a gunshot off in the distance. _The attack_. The sound of the gunshot banishes the fatigue from my mind, and I am instantly awake, even though the dim light outside tells me that it hasn’t been that long since I drifted off to sleep. I know what I have to do. I need to find Beatrice and her family. Hopefully she was able to get everyone to go to the building that I suggested; otherwise, it’ll take a little bit of extra work to find her.

I tuck a handgun in my waistband, and pack my backpack with the other gun and some spare ammunition. I need to be careful to try to avoid running into anybody on my way over there.

The Factionless sector is empty at this time of day. The Factionless in general are not early risers. With the exception of those that drive the trains at this time of day, most of the Factionless that work don’t have to get up early. Many of the jobs that are open to the factionless involve cleaning offices and common spaces at night, when it is not likely to bother the factioned people. Those of us that don’t have jobs have nothing to get up early for.

Fortunately, Erudite is not interested in the Factionless. I’m not worried yet about running into anybody that I shouldn’t, although I remain on alert anyway. Two years in Dauntless instilled that in me.

I hear gunshots as I walk towards Abnegation. It’s hard to listen to, knowing that every time a gunshot goes off, someone in Abnegation might be dying. Once I reach Abnegation, I take care to remain unseen. Even though I’m wearing Dauntless black, I have no clue what exactly is going on.

I hear a noise behind me, and hide in the shadows of an old abandoned building. After waiting a while, I see some Dauntless members from my last initiate class walk by. Christina and Will. They are holding a rifle at the ready, but their expressions are blank. They walk in lock-step with each other.

It dawns on me. Yesterday, the initiates went through their fear landscapes, which are like the simulations, but everyone is awake during them. Afterwards, everyone was injected with an orange liquid. We were told that it was a tracking device. I realize that we weren’t injected with tracking devices yesterday – we were injected with a serum containing a transmitter that connects us to a simulation.

All of the Dauntless are currently being controlled by some sort of massive program. I should have been able to figure it out on my own. I inject people with simulation serums all of the time when I’m training initiates. I inject myself with the same serum when I go through my fear landscape. Simulation serums are orange.

Somehow, the serum is not affecting me. It must be because I am divergent. I’ve always been awake during simulations.

“Let go of me!” I hear someone down the street shout. It’s Uriah, my best friend Zeke’s brother. “You aren’t going to get away with this!”

“I think that we will.” Eric. “This divergent-friendly simulation was developed especially for you and your divergent friends. I can hear the cruelty dripping from his voice. I hate him. “We just need you to monitor the control room for us for a bit. Keep an eye out on how things are going.” His voice fades into the background.

They have Zeke’s brother. The one that I stayed in Dauntless to protect. Anger burns within my chest. Somehow, I’m going to have to go get him. I have to make sure that Beatrice is okay first though.

As I step into the street, I maintain the same zombie-like walk that I saw Christina and Will use. Unfortunately, I don’t have a rifle. I may look a little suspicious, but this is the best that I can do for now.

I turn the corner and see a Dauntless soldier pointing a gun at an elderly man and a couple of children from Abnegation. Molly. She just barely became a Dauntless member; she was ranked tenth, out of the ten people that they allowed to become members this year. She’s going to shoot them if I don’t stop her. While I never really cared much for Molly, I don’t exactly want to kill anybody either. I don’t feel like I have much choice though. If I kill her, I save three lives. If I let her live, they die. To emphasize my thoughts, I hear more shots ringing out somewhere else in the city.

I pull my gun out and take off the safety. Since she is in a simulation, she doesn’t notice me behind her. I take a deep breath as I aim at her; then I fire. She falls to the ground.

For a moment, we all look at the crumpled body on the pavement. “Thank you,” one of the frightened children say, after they realize that I just saved their lives.

“There’s a safe house on North and Fairfield,” I tell them. “Go there. Quickly.”

They run off, and I take Molly’s rifle. I rummage through her pockets in search of extra ammunition. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

I’ve never killed anybody before. I’ve thrown knives at people, I’ve knocked some people out and put them in the hospital, and I even knocked out Eric’s tooth once; but I’ve never taken a life before. The thought makes me queasy.

 _I need to get to Beatrice_ , I remind myself. I resume my zombie-walk. This time I have a rifle, so I should be able to blend in a little bit better.

I reach the building that I told Beatrice that I’d meet her at. I open the door to the first floor, taking care to look for enemy Dauntless soldiers as I step inside. It’s safe. I open the door to the basement where she should be waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	11. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrice waits in the safe house with her father and brother for her mother and Tobias to arrive safely.

**Beatrice**

We’re waiting for my mom to return. I’m also waiting for Tobias, although I don’t say anything to anybody about it. Everyone is so quiet, I can hear the breaths of the people around me.

It’s so quiet, I can hear the door open in the floor above us. I can hear the floorboards above me creaking. I don’t think that anybody is even breathing now. The footsteps are going down the stairs…

The door to the basement opens. I hear a gasp in the silence next to me. Probably someone startled from hearing the door open. An elderly man in gray enters with a young boy and girl; probably his grandchildren. “Is this the place?” the young girl asks in almost a whisper.

I breathe out. We’re still safe.

“Jeremiah,” Marcus says quietly. “You found us.”

The three climb down the stairs. “We were almost shot,” Jeremiah, the elderly man, explains. “A young Dauntless woman was pointing her rifle at us. We were saved though, by another man in Dauntless. He shot her, and then told us to come here.”

_Tobias!_ I think to myself. He must be okay. I feel butterflies in my stomach.

The three newcomers sit next to everyone else quietly. Jeremiah consoles the young girl and boy, who are sobbing quietly. He has his arms around them; their faces are buried in his chest.

The basement door opens. A figure in black appears in the doorway. He’s holding a rifle out, looking around, as if he’s trying to make sure that it is safe inside, and he’d shoot anything that poses a danger.

Susan screams. Caleb, sitting next to her, quickly covers her mouth to silence her.

It’s Tobias. “Four!” I call out. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Caleb giving me a strange look. My father frowns.

“It’s okay,” he tells us, releasing the hold on his rifle so that it hangs by his side. “I’m not going to hurt you” he tells everyone. He closes the door behind him.

“That’s the man that saved us,” Jeremiah’s grandson whispers.

“What’s going on?” Marcus asks. His eyes furrow. “What are you doing here, son?”

Tobias looks at his dad and frowns. “Dauntless were given simulation serums yesterday, right after initiation,” he explains. “The serum is a lot like what everyone is given during the aptitude test. Those people up there shooting don’t know what is going on. They’re mindless drones. They are being given orders, probably from a central computer. I think that the orders are coming from the control room in Dauntless. They captured my friend’s brother and took him there to monitor the situation. He wasn’t affected by the serum.”

“You weren’t either?” my brother asks.

“Obviously not,” he says coldly, frowning. He stares at my brother for a second, until my brother looks away.

“We need to get into Dauntless to end the simulation,” Four says. “That will wake the Dauntless up. They’ll stop attacking once they know what’s going on. Abnegation will stop dying.”

“How do we do that?” Marcus asks.

“Once we get to the computer that’s running the simulation, we destroy the program and all the associated data.”

Mother. She’s still out there. I wonder if she’s safe.

“My mom’s out there,” I say. “We need to end the simulation so she stays safe.”

I hear two knocks at the door. Three knocks. Six knocks.

The door opens. It’s mother. She’s holding a notebook in her left arm. She is grabbing her shoulder with her other. Her arm is covered with blood.

“Mother!” I exclaim. _Did she get hurt?_

“I have the information,” she says. “Or at least the papers. I wasn’t able to get the video.”

_Papers? Information? What is she talking about?_

 

**Tobias**

_Beatrice’s mom._ Natalie Prior. Hopefully we can end this simulation before anything happens to her.

As if on cue, we hear a pattern of knocks on the door. They must have arranged a secret knock so that people would know that whoever is entering is a friend. No wonder that Abnegation girl screamed when I came in. Of course, part of that might have been that I’m dressed in black and carrying a rifle.

Natalie Prior stands in the doorway, holding a notebook under her arm. It looks like she has been shot. She tells everybody that she has the information. What information, I do not know.

“What happened, mom?” a young man asks. I think that I remember that Beatrice had a brother. Caleb.

“I was shot. In the shoulder,” she groans. “While I was running away from Abnegation headquarters, getting this.” She holds out the notebook.

One of the Abnegation women brings out a pallet for Natalie to lie on. Another young lady, the one that screamed when I came in the room, brings her a glass of water.

I feel somewhat useless as I watch the Abnegation get to work. Caleb gets out a first aid kit and cuts the shirt open around the location of the bullet wound; Beatrice’s father Andrew puts antiseptic and a knife.

“Have you ever taken a bullet out of someone before?” Beatrice asks.

“The things I know how to do might surprise you,” Andrew answers, as he gets to work.

Natalie winces as her husband puts the knife in her shoulder. Caleb holds onto her hand, while Beatrice smoothes her mother’s hair, telling her that it will be okay. Tears escape from the corner of Natalie’s eyes.

“Got it,” Andrew says, dropping the bullet on the floor. It makes a small ringing sound as it hits the floor.

“Stitching time,” Andrew says, as he wipes his wife’s shoulder with a cloth. He threads the needle with ease. “One, two, three.” He pulls the needle through her skin as if he’s done it many times before. When he finishes, he covers the stitches with a bandage.

Caleb is evidently wearing more than one layer, because he takes off the outermost layer of shirts that he is wearing and gives it to his mother. Andrew helps her put it on.

“We’re not going to be safe for long,” Marcus says. “We need to get out of this city. If we can stop these attacks, we need to do that as well. If Tobias is right –”

“Four,” I say, glaring at him.

He returns a hard look back to me. “If Tobias is right, then we need to get into Dauntless to end the simulation and get the attacks to stop.”

“Where should we go?” the young lady that screamed asks.

“We should go to the Amity compound in the hope that they’ll take us in,” my father replies. “We need to decide who goes to Amity, then, and who goes to Dauntless.” Marcus looks at me. “What do we need to get inside Dauntless?”

I’m surprised that my father is asking me this. He didn’t believe me when I came to warn him about the attacks. “We need anybody who is willing to face a little danger,” I say, “is willing to fire a gun, and isn’t afraid of heights.”

“I’ll go,” Beatrice volunteers.

“Don’t be a silly girl,” Marcus scoffs. He gives her a look like she’s about one inch tall. I want to smack him.

“I’m not silly; I’m not afraid of heights, and I can fire a gun.” To emphasize her point, I dig around in my backpack and grab the gun that I brought for her. She gives him a smug look as I place the gun in her palm.

Next to her, a teen from Abnegation looks at her funny. I think that he was the guy I saw Beatrice picking up trash with the other day. I think he might like her, but she doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to him.

Caleb gives Beatrice a strange look as well. “Mother isn’t the only person around here with secrets,” she tells him.

“I’ll go too,” Natalie says.

Caleb says that he’ll go, since he has the most information about Erudite’s plans. Andrew Prior offers to go as well. Unfortunately, Marcus also insists on coming.

Everyone else quietly files out of the basement. It is a strange kind of quiet that you would never hear in Dauntless. They’re headed in the opposite direction that we will be going, escaping towards Amity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope to get the rest of this story out before Insurgent hits the movie theaters. :-)


	12. The Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small group of Abnegation heroes take the train to Dauntless to end the simulation.

**Tobias**

As most of Abnegation’s survivors leave for the safety of Amity, I lead the remaining group of Abnegation to the railroad tracks, where we will head towards Dauntless and attempt a dangerous break-in to stop the simulation.

Although I know the train schedule around the Dauntless area, I haven’t taken the train to Abnegation very often. The trains usually run fairly regularly during the day though.

“I’m not sure how long it will be until the train gets here, but we probably won’t have to wait too long,” I say.

“Will the train stop for us?” Caleb asks.

“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “The trains travel slowly through the city. You’ll all need to run next to the car for a while, grab onto the handhold on the outside, and climb inside.”

After jumping on trains for the past two years, it seems second nature to me. I have my suspicions about Natalie, but I’m pretty sure that none of the others have jumped on a train before.

We aren’t waiting too long before the headlights of an approaching train appear, and I start to jog. “Start running,” I command, looking over my shoulder, as the front of the train reaches me. I am quickly able to grab the handle of the train and swing myself inside.

Beatrice is jogging alongside the train next to me. I grab her hand and pull her inside. Caleb jumps onto the train, rolling onto his side as he makes a hard landing. He grabs Marcus and helps him up. Natalie jumps onto the train with ease, as if she used to do it all of the time in a past life. Andrew lands on his stomach. Everybody moves away from the doorway after they hop inside, although I stand in the doorway, with one hand on the rail. Although I have a fear of heights, this is one part of the Dauntless experience that I enjoy.

My guess is that Jeanine will have most of the Dauntless guards stand outside the Dauntless entrance above the Pit; where Beatrice has entered Dauntless before. The back entrance, where all of the Dauntless initiates are taken after the choosing ceremony, requires you to jump off of a building. How I hated that jump during my initiation. Although I was first in my initiation class, I was the last jumper. I hoped that I would never have to do that again, but it looks like I will have to. It probably won’t be heavily guarded.

 

“So, how do you know Tobias?” I hear Caleb asking behind me.

“Four,” Beatrice corrects him. “At any rate, if you recall, he was our neighbor for fourteen years. Our backyard ran right into his.”

“Yes, but we never saw him then. How did Tobi—Four know where we were going to be? And why did he give you a gun?”

“What’s up with the interrogation?” Beatrice asks. “I pick up clothing donations in Dauntless. I ran into Four when I was there. And? Do I ask you about everything that you do in Erudite?”

He doesn’t seem to respond. I smile and shake my head. I wonder if Caleb was always critical of his sister when they were kids. At least she knows how to handle him.

I wonder what it would have been like to have had a sibling. I’m glad that I didn’t though. Not with Marcus as a father.

I turn away from the doorway and go sit next to Beatrice, while giving Caleb my Four look. Even though it never really affected Beatrice, I can see Caleb withering.

No wonder my friend’s brother Uriah calls the Erudite ‘Nose,’” I remark irritably. “Always nosy about things that have nothing to do with them.”

“Tobias,” I hear my dad say quietly.

“It’s Four, dad.” I tell him. “I left Tobias behind when I left you.”

The temperature in the train seemed to drop by several degrees.

I’ve never talked to my father like that. Although people in Dauntless know me as the guy with four fears, my father has always been one of those fears. Maybe being around Beatrice gives me strength.

“We have to work together,” I say quietly, “but we’re not this happy family unit either. It’s a little bit too late for that.”

 

Outside, I can see the buildings look more dilapidated and run down. We’re getting close to the Dauntless compound. I get up and stand in the doorway again. I see the sun reflecting off the glass building that is built over the Pit. We’re almost there.

“When I say jump, I need you to jump,” I say over my shoulder. “Jump as far as you can.”

“Jump?” Caleb asks. “We’re seven stories up, Four.”

“We’ll be jumping onto a roof.” I turn around and see that Caleb has a stunned look on his face. “In Dauntless, it’s a test of bravery. “Andrew, Marcus and Natalie should go first.”

Natalie goes to the opposite side of the rail car, gets a running start, and leaps off the train, landing on her feet. She must have done this before. Andrew and my father follow her. Andrew lands on the very edge of the roof. Marcus doesn’t land on the roof, but his stomach does land on the roof. He’s holding on by his arms.

I don’t pay attention to what happens to him, although in the back of my head, I’m secretly hoping that he falls. “Caleb and Beatrice, now!” I shout. With that, I leap off the roof, landing with ease.

I look back, and watch as Beatrice lands on the roof. She clears the building easily, but trips and lands on her knees. Caleb lands on the edge of the roof and falls on his knees. Glancing over at Marcus, I see that Natalie and Andrew are pulling him up onto the roof.

“From here, we have to jump into the Dauntless entrance,” I announce. “Although this isn’t the only entrance to Dauntless,” I look over at Beatrice, “it’s likely that Jeanine won’t be posting as many guards at this entrance than at the other one. It’s a long way to jump, but there is a net at the bottom to catch you.”

I walk to the edge of the roof. A feeling of dread washes over me. No matter how many times I run through my fear landscape, where I face my fear of heights, I still have trouble dealing with it. I may have been the last jumper as an initiate, but I will have to jump first this time. If there is anybody down there guarding the entrance, I have to be able to take them out before I can ask anybody else to jump.

“I’m going to jump first,” I announce. “Just to make sure that there isn’t anybody down there. Give me a minute and jump after me.” I take a deep breath and leap. My stomach drops as I fall.

I land on the net, grab one of the poles that support the sides of the net, and roll off the net. I quickly look around. Good. There’s nobody guarding this part of Dauntless.

About a minute later, Tris sails through the hole in the ceiling. She lays there for a second after landing and starts laughing. She rolls towards me and I grab her hand, pulling her off the net. I catch her, my hands grasping her sides. After she lands on the ground, she stands there for a second, grinning at me. I smile back, then release her. I cannot understand how she seemed to enjoy that.

Natalie jumps next. She easily pulls herself off of the net. Caleb groans when he hits the net. Andrew throws up after he gets to solid ground. My father is the last jumper, groaning as he lands.

“So, this is the Dauntless compound,” Marcus says, after he rolls off the net and stands on the platform below.

“Yes,” I say coldly.

“So what do we do next?” Andrew asks.

“We need to get to the control room. That’s where the computers are that would control the simulation. Let’s go. Quietly.”

I lead them through the narrow tunnel that leads to the bottom of the Pit. I push open the double doors at the end of the tunnel. Everyone with me looks around with wide eyes as we enter the large cavern that I call my home.

“This is the Pit,” I say quietly.

The narrow path leading around the Pit is striped with patches of light about every ten feet. As our group enters the first patch of light, we hear a gunshot. We must have been seen. We all rush into the next dark patch.

“Is everyone all right?” I ask quietly.

“Yes,” Andrew answers.

“Good,” I say. “Stay here for a minute.”

I softly run to the side of the room. I creep along the room in an attempt to surprise whatever guard shot at us before I am shot first.

“Whoever’s there,” shouts a voice, “surrender your weapons and put your hands up!”

I press my back against the wall, slowly creeping sideways. I hear another gunshot. As I get to the last of the shadow, I wait for a minute while my eyes finish adjusting to the darkness.

I see the guard standing by the door. I recognize him. The gleaming dark hair and long nose with a narrow bridge belongs to one of this year’s initiates. Peter.

I hate Peter. He reminds me a lot of Eric, who was in my initiate class and is one of the leaders of Dauntless. He always tries to belittle people that he sees as weaker than he is. Peter has a tense face; he is not under the effects of the simulation. He looks around, but doesn’t see me.

I sprint the last few steps towards him and thrust my fist out, connecting with his nose. Peter shouts, covering his face with both of his arms. I kick him in the groin. Peter drops to his knees, dropping his gun. I grab the gun and tuck it in my waistband. I point the barrel of my other gun to his head.

“So, they let you stay awake,” I remark.

He looks at me, and I pull the slide back on my gun to chamber a round.

“The Dauntless leaders… they evaluated my records and removed me from the simulation,” he says.

“After what you did to Edward, and how you behaved during initiation, I guess they realized that you lacked a conscience,” I say. “They don’t need to put you under a simulation do get you to murder people.”

“I have a conscience!”

“Sure. I can see why you transferred out of Candor.” I push my gun against his head. “Are they controlling the simulation from the control room, Peter?”

“You won’t shoot me.”

“What makes you think that?” I ask. “I killed your friend Molly earlier today.”

“You did not.”

“It was either her or an old man and some innocent kids.”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

I shoot him in the arm.

Peter screams. Blood is pouring from the wound.

“Yes, they’re running the simulation from the control room,” Peter groans. “They’re watching. If you don’t kill me, they will. I need you to take me with you.”

“What?”

“Take me… ahh… with you.”

I hear footsteps approaching me. I look over my shoulder and see Beatrice and the others walking towards us. Andrew is breathing heavily. He must be having trouble navigating the steep paths of the pit.

Andrew takes off his long-sleeved shirt, revealing a gray t-shirt underneath. He ties the fabric tightly around Peter’s arm. “Was it really necessary to shoot him?” he asks in a disapproving tone.

“Sometimes pain is for the greater good,” Marcus says calmly.

He would think that. I think back to the numerous times when I was a child, when my father would become angry for the slightest perceived offense, with his belt in his hand. _This is for your own good_ , he’d always say to me. I shudder.

“Get up, Peter,” I command. “Let’s go.”

“You want him to _walk_?” Caleb asks. “Are you insane?”

“I didn’t shoot him in the leg. He passed Dauntless initiation; he’s a big boy. Let’s go.”

Caleb helps Peter get to his feet.

 

**Beatrice**

Even though I’ve been inside Dauntless before, I never went farther inside than the donation center. I’m impressed. We’re in a giant underground cave. We follow Tobias along the narrow pathway surrounding what Tobias called the Pit. We pass a roaring river along the way. The vast cavern seems almost empty. I wonder to myself what it must look like here on a normal day.

We climb the path. I hear my father huffing and puffing behind me. I wonder what Dauntless members do as they get older and it’s harder and harder to navigate these paths.

Tobias stops at the bottom of a set of metal stairs. He watches the wall on the other side of the Pit for a couple of minutes.

“There are men with guns up there. They’ll shoot to kill if they can. They seem to be going back and forth about every two minutes. Let’s go.”

Tobias climbs the stairs first. He stops right before he reaches the top. After a few seconds, he pops his head up and fires. “One guard down,” he announces. He fires again. I hear what sounds like a gun skidding across the floor. He finishes climbing the stairs.

I follow behind him, staying in the stairway. I see that not only did he hit one of the guards, but hit the shooting arm of another. He kicks the second guard’s gun towards me. I catch it and hand it to Caleb, since I already have a weapon. He looks at it like it’s going to bite him.

I hear another gunshot. Tobias turns around and fires, hitting another guard. Another guard is pointing a gun at him, but isn’t firing. He jerks his head to the side, letting him go. He must be Divergent, like I am.

“All clear!” Tobias shouts. I climb the rest of the stairs, followed by the rest of my family and by Marcus.

“You and Marcus stay with Peter, here,” Tobias tells Caleb. “I don’t want him slowing us down. “Stand as a lookout to make sure that nobody tries to attack us from behind.”

The rest of us head to an elevator. On the way, I notice that one of the fallen guards has a gun. I grab it and hand it to my father. After we get into the elevator, Tobias presses button for the eighth floor.

As the elevator opens, two guards with blank faces greet us, with guns in their hands. I drop to the floor as shots fire. I hear the sound of bullets hitting glass. Both guards fall to the ground. My father stands above one of them, still holding out his gun. I can’t really tell, but it almost looks like Mother is beaming at him with pride.

The elevator is in the middle of a long hallway. Guards are running down the hallway to the left of us. Their footsteps are synchronized; they must be under the simulation.

My father exits the hallway and runs to the right, drawing the attention of the guards. Father tries firing at them, but the guards fire first. A bullet hits his stomach. He clutches his stomach and fires again. The guards keep on running, even though they are hit; they must not register pain while under the simulation.

They keep on running. My mother fires at them and they drop to the ground, dead. They don’t reach my father.

“Dad” I cry weakly, watching him slump to the ground. My mother runs to him. Father opens his mouth, as if he is going to say something, but he never does. His chin falls to his chest and he falls over. My mother reaches him and kneels beside him. She puts an arm on his shoulder and weeps.

I feel sick. I want to fall asleep and have this nightmare end. I can’t though. For every minute we waste, more people in Abnegation die, and more in Dauntless become murderers. We have to destroy the simulation.

“Come on, let’s go,” Tobias says to me, nudging me in the arm.

We run down the hallway, turning to the right when we reach the end. Tobias opens the door in front of us.

Inside the room are several desks with computers on them. Even more spectacular is the wall opposite of us. There, I can see dozens of screens, each about a foot tall and a foot wide. Each screen shows a different part of the city. Some are trained on the fence. Others are pointed at the Hub. Many reveal the streets in Abnegation, which are covered with Dauntless soldiers. One screen reveals the bottom of the elevator, where Caleb, Marcus, and Peter wait for us.

Another screen is full of text instead of an image; they must be lines of computer code. The text scrolls by faster than one can read. The computer code must already be compiled, sending out a complicated set of commands that will order the soldiers in Abnegation to keep on killing, no matter what happens.

In the middle of the bank of screens screens sits a boy with bronze skin and brown hair, about my age, wearing a set of headphones. He is looking at the screens in front of him.

“Uriah,” Tobias whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	13. The Simulation Ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris and Tobias end the simulation.

**Tobias**

Uriah, my best friend’s brother, is sitting in front of the computer that is controlling the simulation. As soon as the door opened and I whispered his name, he turns around and looks at me and Beatrice. “Drop your weapons,” he says to us, aiming a gun at me.

“Uriah, what are you doing?”

“I’ll fire if you don’t set your guns down.”

We put our guns on the floor at our feet.

“Set your guns down!” Uriah shouts.

“We did,” I say. Uriah doesn’t have the look of a zombie, like all of the other people in a simulation, but perhaps Uriah is under the influence of the divergent-friendly serum that I heard Eric talking about as I was making my way to the safe house earlier today. Maybe he can’t understand what’s going on.

“Uriah, it’s me, Four, Zeke’s friend.”

He continues to stand there, pointing a gun at us; at me, in particular. I must seem more of a threat to him than Beatrice, who’s fairly small and wearing Abnegation grey.

I don’t wait for Uriah to fire at me. I need to disable him, to disable this computer system so that Uriah, and all of the other Dauntless, will be free of this computer simulation that the Erudite have put them under. I rush for Uriah and grab his arm, but I’m not able to disable him before Uriah is able to get a shot off. I hear a scream behind me. He must have hit Beatrice.

Fortunately, I am a stronger fighter than Uriah. I punch him hard in the face and knee him in the stomach. Uriah swings at me with his free arm, but before he hits me, I grab that arm as well. I don’t actually want to hurt him, but I do need him to stop attacking.

I look behind me at Beatrice. She is clutching her left shoulder with her right hand. “Beatrice, I know you’re hurt,” I call out, “but would you be able to help me disable this computer here? I can tell you what to do.”

She nods at me, obviously in pain.

“I need you to walk over to the keyboard over there and press shift, alt, and control, okay?”

Still clutching her arm, she walks over to the keyboard. She searches the keyboard for a moment and presses a few buttons. It’s obvious that she doesn’t use a computer very often. The computer screen changes, revealing a window with a list of programs that are running.

“What programs does it say are running?” I ask.

“Camera monitor, faction messenger, desktop,” she says softly, “and attack sim.” Watching the monitors around her, I see the monitor facing the first floor by the elevators, where Caleb, Peter, and Marcus are standing guard. I notice that Caleb is raising a weapon at someone off camera. Hopefully Beatrice can end this simulation before anybody down there gets hurt.

“Click on the program that says ‘attack sim,’” I tell her. Uriah struggles in my grasp, and I adjust my grip to hold onto him a bit tighter.

She moves the mouse a bit. “Okay.” I see a flash emit from the gun that Caleb is holding in his hand.

“There should be a button in the bottom of the screen that says ‘End program.’ Click on that.” Down on the first floor, Dauntless soldiers enter the camera view and grab Caleb.

Once again she moves her mouse.

Uriah stops trying to fight my grasp and slumps in my arms. The Dauntless soldiers below release Caleb and look confused.

Uriah groans. “Four,” he whispers. “What’s going on?”

 

**Beatrice**

I can hear my heart pounding in my chest as I notice Uriah, who evidently is some acquaintance of Tobias’s, stop fighting against Tobias after I press the button to end the simulation program. Looking at the screens around the room, I also notice that the Dauntless soldiers in Abnegation have also seemed to end their attack. I let out a sigh of relief at the realization.

“You’re back,” Four says. “You were under a simulation.”

Four looks at me for a second. “I’d like you to meet someone,” he says, glancing back at Uriah. “Uriah, this is my friend Beatrice. Beatrice, this is my best friend’s brother, Uriah.”

Uriah looks at me and grins. He holds out his hand; I reach back out to shake it, although I’m not used to handshakes, so it feels awkward to me. “Nice to meet you,” he says. He looks at my shoulder. “Did I do that?”

I shrug my uninjured shoulder. “You didn’t mean to.” The adrenaline present when we were stopping the simulation is subsiding, and the pain of the bullet wound is starting to catch up with me. I wince at the feeling, but I know that I can’t rest yet.

“I’m sorry. I thought that you were the enemy. I was trying to stop the simulation. I guess I wasn’t doing a very good job at it.”

As I’m speaking to Uriah, Tobias is taking off his jacket and his t-shirt. I can’t help but to be impressed at his chiseled muscles, but he looks embarrassed, so I look down.

He rips a large piece off of his t-shirt, and wraps it around my injured shoulder, trying to be gentle, but to stop the bleeding. “This should hold it for now,” he tells me. He puts his jacket back on.

I look over at the cameras pointing at the first floor elevator entrance, where Dauntless soldiers are looking at my brother and Marcus with an odd look. “We should get down there and help Caleb,” I suggest.

“Just a minute,” Four says. He leans down at the computer on the floor and takes the side off of the case. He pulls out a palm-sized box out of the computer, and the screen that I was working on turns black. “The hard drive has all the simulation data. If we take it out, they can’t restart the simulation.” He hands the hard drive to me, and I put it in my back pocket.

I watch the screens in Abnegation for a second. It looks like there is a disagreement among the Dauntless about what they should be doing. Some of the Dauntless soldiers are firing at others. People are scattering amid the chaos.

As we walk into the hallway, we run into mother, whose face is stained with tears. She gives me a hug with her good arm. “Beatrice,” she says. “Are you okay?”

“Ow,” I say upon her contact. “I need to get this arm looked at, but other than that, I’ll be all right.” I smile. I don’t want her to feel guilty for staying behind or anything. My mother is selfless enough to feel that way, although I suspect that once upon a time, she was part of Dauntless.

“Father is gone.” She puts her hand on my good shoulder.

Even more than the injury to my arm, the realization of what has happened starts to sink in. My father. Gone. Tears come to my eyes. My shoulder will heal, but it’s hard to believe that he’s gone.

“We have to get out of here, mom,” I say quietly. “We woke up Dauntless from the simulation, but now they seem to be fighting each other.” She nods at me.

We walk down the hallway together, and Tobias introduces her to Uriah. As we near the place where my father was shot down, a pang of agony fills my heart, and I feel like throwing up. We take the elevator to the first floor and meet up with my brother, Peter, and Marcus.

 

I am barely aware of what is going on around me. My mother helps guide me outside, and we are with Caleb once again. He frowns as he sees my injury.

“Dad?” he asks.

Looking at my face and that of my mother’s, he can tell what happened.

“Well,” he says, almost choking, “he died saving the rest of us. He would have wanted it that way.”

“You’re okay,” Marcus sighs, approaching Tobias and giving him a hug. Tobias winces, then pushes him away slightly.

“We have to go,” Tobias says, looking at his watch. “The train will be here any second.”

We walk towards the train tracks. “Hopefully Amity will take us in,” I say.

“What about Candor?” Caleb asks. “What do you think they’ll do?”

I shake my head. I don’t know what they’ll do. I don’t think that they will join with the Erudite, but would they fight them? I don’t know.

After we get to the tracks, we wait for a few minutes before the train arrives. I lean on Tobias as we wait, because I’m not feeling very steady at the moment.

As the train comes, we start to jog alongside. Tobias hops on quickly, and then reaches over and grabs me under the armpit, helping me in. Peter and Uriah have no trouble getting in, and even my mother, although she has an injured shoulder, is able to hop on fairly easily. Caleb hops in clumsily. Marcus needs help boarding the train. My mother grabs him.

We sit down on the floor of the train car, half stunned from the events of the day. The train rumbles along, taking us into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	14. Into the Great Unknown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tris, Tobias, and the small group with them flee to Amity, not knowing what awaits them.

**Beatrice**

After we all board the train, we take seats around the train car. I sit down against the wall, away from the car’s entrance. Caleb and my mother are sitting on one end of the car, on the opposite side of Marcus and Peter. Tobias sits down next to me, and Uriah sits on his other side.

Through the open door, I watch the city pass by. The big buildings recede into the distance, growing smaller and smaller. The houses outside the train now once held single families, but are mostly abandoned now. The train will take us to the end of the line, right by the edge of the fence.

When I was in elementary school, our class took different trips to see the various factions. I vaguely remember Amity, with its vast fields, and beyond that, a forest. Back then, I remember the excitement of getting to eat in the Amity cafeteria, although my brother was quick to remind me that we needed to make sure that everyone else had the chance to eat first, and we needed to be thankful for what we had. It spoiled the day, but just a little. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the farms and surrounding countryside at the time, which was actually one of the objectives in sending us on the field trip in the first place.

I’m sure that Amity will be kind to us and take us in, at least for a while; that’s what Amity does. We can’t stay there forever though. Erudite will come looking for us. From what it looked like in the security cameras before we left Dauntless, there may be a rift in their faction; some of them will come looking for us after a while as well. We’ll have to find somewhere else to go. Where, I don’t know.

Tobias taps the side of my hand. When I respond by moving my hand over a bit, he takes his hand in mine. I’m not sure what this means. Holding hands means nothing to the Dauntless, but it means a lot in Abnegation. Tobias would know that, originally being from Abnegation himself. I don’t really care though, because I like it.

“I can’t believe that my dad died today,” I say quietly. Could it have really only been earlier this afternoon when he was shot down? “He died for me and Mother.”

“He loved you,” he says softly. “I can’t think of any greater way for someone to show that than to give their life for another.”

I nod. It doesn’t make it any easier though.

“We all could have been killed today. We’re all fortunate to be here,” I remark.

“Yes.”

I think about what the rest of the day, what the rest of the week might hold; the uncertainty of it all. “It’s almost like we’re all factionless now,” I say quietly. “What’s going to happen to all of us?”

Tobias strokes my hand with his thumb. “I don’t know.”

“I think I need a new name,” I muse, “to go with this new life. Something more bold, because we’re going to need to be brave in order to face whatever’s coming.”

“What do you suggest?”

I think for a second. “I like the name Tris.”

Tobias smiles. “Tris… I like the sound of it.”

I watch the countryside grow less and less crowded with buildings for a minute. Even the abandoned single-family homes are now farther apart. Grass and weeds fill in the gaps.

Tobias turns to me and whispers into my ear. “Since we’re giving ourselves new nicknames, I’d like you to do me a favor.”

“What’s that?”

“When it’s just me and you, you can go ahead and call me Tobias,” he whispers. “I like to hear it again, when it’s not a threat or an insult.”

I smile at him. “I’d like that too.”

I like the thought of having a special name for Tobias that nobody else calls him. Well, nobody except for Marcus, perhaps.

In the car around me, Mother, Marcus, and Uriah have fallen asleep. Caleb seems to be glaring at me for some reason. Peter is eyeing me with suspicion. I don’t think that I like Peter. He was trusted to stay awake during the simulation, and when I saw them interacting, it didn’t look like Tobias likes him very much either.

I take out the hard drive containing the simulation date from my back pocket. As I tilt it back and forth, it catches the last rays of the sun’s light and reflects it. I think about how this one little box contains the only images, the only memories, left of my father. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that Peter is watching me. I’m not sure what to make of that.

I lean my head against the wall, put the hard drive back into my pocket, and try to fall asleep.

 

I’m not sure how to face this new reality. Will the selflessness that Abnegation has tried to instill in me since birth, only somewhat successfully, be enough? Do I have enough of Dauntless in me to face the unknown? Will this – whatever is going on with me and Tobias – be helpful or harmful in this new reality? I don’t know. I lost my dad today. Can I even keep on breathing?

With these uncertainties in my thoughts, exhaustion takes over, and I slowly drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it! I hope that you liked it. Dauntless, the second book in my planned tetrology, needs about 2 1/2 more chapters until the first draft is done. Once it's finished, I'll polish it up and start publishing it on here.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
